UNT swimming and diving splits meets against Houston and Rice

by PegNews wire

UNT 133, Houston 110

The North Texas swimming and diving team attained redemption after a tough finish in Las Cruces against New Mexico State and beat the University of Houston, 133-110.

Houston scored the bulk of its points (32) by securing the top three finishes in the one and three-meter diving events, but it wasn’t enough to top a strong swimming performance put on by the Mean Green.

North Texas raked up 127 of its 133 points in the water as it finished first in both the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:37.61) and the 200 medley relay (1:48:77).

"This was a great day for us,” said head coach Joe Dykstra. “This is the first time we defeated Houston. We were 0-13 against them, now we are 1-13. That one win looms large for us so I'm really proud of the effort of the team today. They got the job done. We were inspired and we raced hard. I couldn’t be prouder."

Mean Green swimmer Hannah Bakke set a new pool record at the Pohl Recreation Center as she finished the 100 yard breaststroke with a time of 1:05:36 beating Texas A&M’s Chelsea Helgason’s mark of 1:05:41 set in 2007.

"I'm sad because I'm going be gone soon,” Bakke said. “I love this team but it’s exciting to go out like this. I love swimming fast and hopefully this mark might stand for awhile."

Fellow swimmer Nicole Leslie broke her own school record in the 50 free with a 23.75. Leslie, a sophomore from Alvin, Texas, now owns all ten of the top marks in school history in the event.

"After having such a rough meet in New Mexico it’s good to swim well and get back in form going into conference play,” Leslie said. “Individual stuff aside, it feels really good to get this win."

Rice 154, UNT 134

After a strong showing against a talented University of Houston squad yesterday, the North Texas swimming and diving team dropped a dual-meet decision Saturday afternoon to Rice, 154-134.

Several races during the meet came down to a few fractions of a second, but North Texas could not pull away in the final lengths to secure first place finishes. Rice out-touched the Mean Green in both the 400-yard medley and 400 freestyle relays to pick up a valuable nine points in both events.

One of the better performances in the water for the Mean Green was put on by Bonnie Garcia-Meitin. Garcia-Meitin, a senior from Angleton, Texas, finished first in the 100 back (59:12), second in the 200 back (2:06:92) and helped North Texas finish second in each of its respective relay teams.

“The experience kind of hurts right now losing such a close meet,” Garcia-Meitin said. “But right now coach [Joe] Dykstra is really getting us to focus on playing through pain and swimming hard despite fatigue.”

Perhaps one of the most impressive swimming performances of the day came by Rice’s Brittney Massingale who won the 1000 free in a convincing manner with a time of 10:25:80 and quickly jumped back in the water for the next event to finish first in the 200 yard free.

Alicia Hale is continuing a strong 2008 campaign as the Schertz sophomore has now recorded a first place finished in 3 of her last 4 meets.

“We had a solid day,” head coach Joe Dykstra. “I’m generally pleased with the results of today’s meet considering in the past, we have never been in the same realm as Rice. But today was a competitive meet. It came down to fractions of a second in a lot of events and for us there’s no shame in losing a hard-fought battle.”

Source: UNT