For the seventh-straight year, the No. 5 SMU women's swimming and diving team won the team title at the Western Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championship. The Mustangs earned a total of 1006.5 points at the Palo Alto College Natatorium in San Antonio, Texas, finishing the championship with 16 gold medals, topping last season?s gold medal total of 14. SMU was the first WAC school to ever break 1000 points.
Sophomore Flavia Rigomonti repeated her stellar performance from last season when she broke four records in the 1,650-yard freestyle. Her time of 15:40.41 is a new WAC record, meet, pool and SMU school record. Rigamonti, a fourth-place finisher in the 2000 Olympics in the 800 Freestyle, just missed the NCAA record of 15:39.14 set by Janet Evans in 1990. Taking second in the event was Hawai?i?s Jessica Affleck, while Rice?s Adi Bichman was third.
SMU continued its record-setting trend in the 200-yard backstroke. Junior Alenka Kejzar broke her own WAC, meet, and school records in the 200 back with a time of 1:53.68, an automatic qualifying time. Kejzar set the WAC Championship record last season with a time of 1:54.28. Hawai?i?s YingJuan Zhen finished second with a time of 2:03.99. SMU?s Alexandra Miciul took bronze with a time of 2:00 .92.
In the 100-yard freestyle, SMU senior Lisa Wanberg continued her strong meet, winning her fifth medal in as many days. Teammates Laura Pomeroy and Dallas Marshall finished second and third, respectively. Wanberg finished with a time of 49.83, just ahead of teammate Pomeroy who had a time of 49.93. Marshall finished with a time of 50.53.
WAC records continued to fall when SMU junior Corrie Clark set a new WAC Championship in the 200-yard breaststroke record with an automatic qualifying time of 2:11.00, topping her best time of the season by over a second. The time was also a team record, breaking Katie McClelland's time of 2:11.61 set in 1996. SMU?s Sara Nordenstam earned a silver with a time of 2:15.20, while Nevada?s Leticia Cunha was awarded the bronze with a time of 2:15.95. WAC Swimmer of the Year Georgina Lee won the 200-yard butterfly with a automatic qualifying time of 1:56.40. Hawai?i?s Yan Chen finished second with a time of 1:59.80, while SMU?s McCall Dorr was third with a time of 2:00.23.
In the only event of the night not won by SMU, Hawai?i diver Maggie Roberts won gold to add to her silver and bronze, winning the platform diving. Roberts had 382.60 points just ahead of Nevada?s Jessica Gale with 382.60 points. The Wolf Pack?s Devon Owen finished third with 381.75 points. In the final event of the championship, SMU captured the 400-yard freestyle relay with a WAC Championship record time of 3:19.13. Rice finished second with a time of 3:26.56, and Rice was third with a time of 3:26.91
SMU finished the meet with 1006.5 points. For the second-straight season, Nevada finished second with 659. Rice was in third place with 506.5 points. After finishing sixth in 2002, Hawai?i moved up to fourth place this season with 487.5 points. Fresno State finished fifth with 403.5 points, while San Jose State ended the meet sixth with 344.
After the meet, postseason honors were awarded with SMU head coach Steve Collins earning his fourth WAC Coach of the Year honor. San Jose State?s Bill Boos earned his first Diving Coach of the Year honor. SMU junior Georgina Lee was named WAC Swimmer of the Year, while teammate Laura Pomeroy was named Freshman of the Year. 2003 marked the fourth consecutive year the Mustangs have won the Freshman of the Year honor. Maggie Roberts of Hawai?i earned her second-straight WAC Diver of the Year honor.
Swimmer of the Year: Georgina Lee, SMU
Diver of the Year: Maggie Roberts, UH
Freshman of the Year: Laura Pomeroy, SMU
Swimming Coach of the Year: Steve Collins, SMU
Diving Coach of the Year: Bill Boos, SJSU
Complete results
