Nov. 23, 2010
HOUSTON (SMU) - SMU's men's and women's swim teams both earned runner up honors at the Cougar Classic this weekend. The men finished with 851 points, while the women collected 875.50 points. LSU took first place in both the men's and women's competitions.
Junior Therese Svendsen was the Mustangs' top swimmer for the meet. Svendsen took first in three individual events; the 100-yard backstroke (53.70), 200-yard backstroke (1:56.22) and 200-yard IM (2:00.04). She also swam the third leg of the first place 800-yard freestyle relay team. Additionally, Svendsen lead off the 200- and 400-yard medley relay teams, helping both to second place finishes. All of Svendsen's individual times, as well as each of the relays, were NCAA B qualifying times.
Freshman Nina Rangelova turned in another strong performance with two top finishes in the 200- and 500-yard freestyle, with times of 1:46.20 and 4:45.69, respectively. She also swam the first leg of the first place 800-yard freestyle relay team. Rangelova earned second place honors in the 400-yard medley relay and took third in the individual 100-yard freestyle clocking in at 50.27. Rangelova recorded NCAA B qualifying times in four out of five of the events in which she competed.
Senior diver Audra Egenolf finished second in platform diving scoring 266.65 points. Egenolf took the third place in both the one-meter and three-meter diving events, recording scores of 278.90 and 271.35, respectively.
Other top finishers for the women included Denisa Smolenova (200-yard butterfly), Alice McCall (1650-yard freestyle) and the 800-yard freestyle relay team (Rangelova, Van den Branden, Svendsen and Ana Santos).
SMU women's swimming and diving had 12 athletes finish with NCAA B qualifying times in 13 events. Those athletes are Monika Babok, Raminta Dvariskyte, Genny Konicke, Maroua Mathlouthi, Deanna Matthews, Alice McCall, Nina Rangelova, Ana Santos, Denisa Smolenova, Therese Svendsen, Sascha Van den Branden and Emily Vavourakis.
For the men, Mindaugas Sadauskas had a strong weekend performance, taking second in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 20.59. He had two individual third place finishes on the day in the 50-yard freestyle (20.59) and 100-yard backstroke (50.46). Sadauskas also helped lead the 400- and 800-yard freestyle relay teams to runner-up honors. Additionally, Sadauskas swam the first leg in both the 200- and 400-yard medley relays that finished third.
Matt Roney had two runner up finishes in the 200-yard freestyle (1:40.44) and 200-yard butterfly (1:51.73).
Mitchell Thomson came in third place in both the 500-yard freestyle and 1650-yard freestyle with times of 4:34.10 and 15:41.43, respectively. Redshirt freshman Julian Fletcher took third in the 100-yard breaststroke (58.14).
Next up for the Mustangs, men's swimming and diving will travel to College Station, Texas for a dual meet against Texas A&M on December 4, and the women will compete in the UT Diving Invite in Austin, December 2-4.
