Friday, February 29, 2008

Yancey makes history for SMU women’s swimming and diving

By Pegasus News wire

The No. 14 SMU women's swimming and diving team made history Thursday night in Houston, as sophomore diver Britney Yancey broke Houston's six-year stranglehold on Conference USA diving titles by winning gold on the three-meter board.

Yancey's score of 329.50, an NCAA `A' cut, was a career-best for her and was over 15 points higher than Houston's Courtney Forcucci's score. Freshman Audra Egenolf took third in the event, scoring a career-high 306.05.

The Mustangs totaled two conference and pool records, 10 career-bests, three NCAA `A' cuts and seven NCAA `B' cuts Thursday night.

Jennifer Blackman started SMU off by notching a career-fastest time in the 500 free, finishing the course in 4:45.27, which is an NCAA `A' cut. Blackman bettered her old mark by nearly two full seconds. Katie Roberts took third in the 500 free, touching in at 4:52.47, a mark good for NCAA consideration.

In the 200 IM, the Mustangs finished first through sixth, tallying almost 100 points in that event alone. Petra Klosova earned the title, clocking a time of 1:59.48, a new career-best mark, as well as a new C-USA and pool record. Klosova shattered the old meet/pool record, set in 2006 by teammate Jennifer Basel, by over a second. Basel finished second, in a season-best 2:00.99. Newcomer Maroua Mathlouthi took third in a season-fastest 2:01.89, while Devon Callaghan finished fourth in a career-best 2:03.08. Anja Carman finished fifth in 2:03.37 and Justine Clark took sixth in a career-fastest 2:03.66. Klosova's time was well inside the NCAA `A' cut, while the other five Mustangs all swam NCAA `B' cuts in the event.

The Mustangs finished one-two in the 50 free, with Candace Blackman winning the event in 22.79, a mark that qualifies for NCAA consideration. Angela San Juan Cisneros took second in a career-best time of 22.92, good for NCAA consideration. Sascha Van den Branden narrowly missed the NCAA `B' cut, finishing fifth in 23:46. Elzanne Werth notched a career-fastest time of 23.62, finishing in seventh and Gabriela Soza finished 10th in a career-fastest 24:04.

SMU finished the evening by claiming its second C-USA meet and pool record of the evening, winning the 400 medley relay in a season-fastest time. Carman, Callaghan, Werth and Klosova touched in at a blazing fast 3:38.86, nearly three seconds faster than the old C-USA mark, set by SMU in 2006.

"We had a great night tonight," said head coach Steve Collins. "It's really exciting to be here. There's a great team atmosphere at this meet. We should be able to continue to build from here. Getting first through sixth tonight in the 200 IM was amazing. Jenny Basel is really determined to swim an `A' cut tomorrow in the 400 IM, so I really hope she does it. Britney Yancey winning the diving event is so incredible for her, and we're all just really excited. Breaking the C-USA record in the 400 medley relay wast a great way to end the evening. I think we're on a roll and we've got great momentum moving into tomorrow."

The Mustangs lead in the team standings after day two, coming in with 323 points. Rice is in second with 213, with East Carolina in third with 178. Houston is in fourth, Marshall is fifth, Northern Colorado is sixth and CSU Bakersfield is in seventh.

Friday, the Mustangs will compete in the 200 free relay, one-meter diving, 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast and 100 back events. Prelims begin at 10am and finals begin at 6pm. Live results can be found on the Conference USA Championship Central page here. Complete SMU recap and results will be available following the day's competition at SMUMustangs.com.

Source: SMU

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