Oct. 22, 2005
Results
DALLAS (SMU) - The No. 9 SMU women's swimming & diving team won the 12th-Annual SMU Women's Swimming and Diving Classic on Saturday totaling 320 points, edging No. 1 Florida (308) by 12 points. The twelve point win was the second closest margin of victory in Classic history. This marks the sixth overall title for the Mustangs, who have finished in the top two in 10 of the 12 events. The relay team of Candace Blackman, Leane Darling, Roxane Akradi and Celina Lemmen set a meet and pool record in the last event of the contest, the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:33.32), to seal the victory.
SMU's 400 free relay team started the night in winning fashion, taking first with a time of 3:24.10 to close the gap on the Gators. The Mustang duo of Katie Roberts (4:52.39) and Anja Carman (4:48.96) then swept the consolation and championship heats of the next event, the 500 free, to give SMU it's first lead in the standings. After the 200 back and 200 breast, Florida regained a slim lead heading into the diving competition.
South Carolina's Tracey Richardson won the three-meter diving event with a score of 265.40 and was also named the high-point diver of the event. SMU's Kristin Schild scored 234.50 in the three-meter and helped keep the Mustangs within striking distance of the Gators.
SMU grabbed the lead for good after the 100-yard freestyle. Blackman touched the wall first in the championships final (50.65), just ahead of U.S. Olympian Dana Vollmer and Darling won the consolation final in 51.18. The Mustangs scored just enough points to remain in the lead after the 200 fly and 200 IM and held off the Gators with the 400 free relay win.
Head coach Steve Collins was excited about the win and impressed with his team's ability to come back and overtake Florida.
"This is a really tough meet to meet to catch up in because of how tight the scoring system is," Collins said. "We really swam well at the beginning of the night and got some momentum. We did what we needed to do in our weaker events to keep the lead and we set ourselves up for the final relay. This was one of the most exciting Classic meets that I have ever been a part of."
On the weekend, two meet records and one pool record were broken. Yi Ting Siow of Wisconsin swam the 200 breast in 2:11.59 for a new meet record and SMU's 200 free relay team set a new meet and pool record to close out the event.
Collins feels that his team showed it is a contender after great swims to open the season.
"We realize that we are a good team and that we have a good opportunity to do some special things this season," Collins said. "We need to use that as motivation to work even harder. We can't accept where we are at now and ride it to the NCAA's. We have to work hard all season."
Following SMU and Florida in the team standing were No. 8 UCLA (302), No. 12 Wisconsin (299), South Carlolina (213) and No. 25 Washington (202). UCLA's Katie Arnold was high-point swimmer.
The SMU women's swimming & diving team returns to the pool Friday, Nov. 4, at 7:00 p.m. when they host No. 7 Texas at Perkins Natatorium.
