Oct. 4, 2007
DENTON, Texas--The SMU women's swim team dominated the Mean Green Relays at North Texas Oct. 3, winning every event and setting two pool records in the process.
The Mustangs bested previously-held records in both the 400 yard medley relay and the 400 yard freestyle 4 x 100 relay. In the 400 yard medley relay, Petra Klosova, Devon Callaghan, Angela San Juan Cisneros and Sascha Van den Branden combined for an overall time of 3:51.39, beating the old record (held since 2004 by a foursome from Texas A&M) by almost four and a half seconds. In the 400 yard freestyle relay, Jennifer Blackman, Candace Blackman, San Juan Cisneros and Gabriela Soza completed the course in 3:28.84, sinking the old record (held by North Texas since 2004) by over 13 seconds.
In the 300 yard butterfly 3 x 100 relay, Elzanne Werth, San Juan Cisneros and Justine Clark finished with a time of 2:52.41, beating their nearest competitors by over three and a half seconds.
Event two saw Van den Branden, Klosova and Kylie O'Donnell swim the 300 yard backstroke 3 x 100 relay in 2:56.00, two seconds faster than the second-place North Texas `A' group.
The third event was the 300 yard breaststroke 3 x 100 relay, which Callaghan, Tamara Sambrailo and Jennifer Basel finished in 3:20.04, more than three seconds before North Texas' `A' squad.
Candace Blackman, Jennifer Blackman, Katie Roberts and Van den Branden completed the 800 yard freestyle 4 x 200 in 7:31.00, over 20 seconds faster than North Texas.
The Mustangs took event five over North Texas, with Soza, Werth, Katie Roberts and Basel finishing the 500 yard freestyle 50-100-150-200 relay in 4:35.73, over five seconds quicker than the Mean Green.
Event six saw the first of two pool records shattered, as Klosova, Callaghan, San Juan Cisneros and Van den Branden bested the old record by four and half seconds and finished almost seven seconds ahead of the second-place Mean Green.
Candace Blackman, Werth, Soza and Clark nearly set another pool record in the 200 yard freestyle 4 x 50 relay, but finished one second behind the current record (set by a Mustang foursome in 2005). The Mustangs still won the event, almost a full second faster than North Texas.
Jennifer Blackman, Roberts and Federica Felloni swam the 1500 yard freestyle 3 x 500 relay in 15:19.48, almost a full 30 seconds faster than their nearest competitor (North Texas, 15:48.01).
The ninth event of the day was the 400 yard medley 4 x 100 IM relay, which Klosova, Callaghan, Van den Branden and Basel dominated, finishing in 3:59.12, over seven seconds faster than the Mean Green.
The final event was the 400 yard freestyle 4 x 100 relay, in which Jennifer Blackman, Candace Blackman, San Juan Cisneros and Soza gave a commanding performance, beating the previous pool record by almost 13 seconds and finishing nearly six seconds ahead of North Texas.
SMU finished the day with 140 total points, while North Texas ended with 98 and TCU finished with 82. The Mustangs are back in action Oct. 26-27 at home as they play host to Wisconsin, Florida State, Texas A&M, Alabama and USC in the SMU Swim Classic at the Perkins Natatorium. For the complete schedule and results, log on to SMUMustangs.com.
