Swim And Dive Defeats TCU, Ouachita Baptist

Saturday, December 8

Fort Worth

2 pm

University of North Texas

149.5

142.5

TCU

12/8/2018 9:17:00 PM | Swimming and Diving

Full Results

FORT WORTH – The Mean Green swim and dive team invaded the Texas Christian University rec center and walked out victorious as the Mean Green defeated TCU and Ouachita Baptist University in a double-dual meet on Saturday afternoon.

The Mean Green scored 149-142.50 against the Horned Frogs while defeating the Tigers of Ouachita Baptist 240-46. North Texas placed first in both relay events, while taking home seven individual first place finishes.

For head coach Brittany Roth and her squad it was a great way to kick off finals week and roll into winter training.

"It's really tough to race at this point in the year," Roth said. "I think our girls did a great job of coming in and viewing this as business and needing to bring their A-Game. They knew it would require a lot of effort for everyone in our program and they got the energy up. They fed off that first relay win and it became a snowball effect. I'm really happy with the girls."

In the first two events of the day North Texas found gold. In the 200-yard medley relay, the team of junior Jowita Sienczyk, seniors Meaghan Rousset, Brittany Thurstin and Emmabeth Jensen turned in a time of 1:46.38 to take home gold. Senior Natalia Kwiatkowska, freshmen Brooke Beddingfield, Alvena Walpole and senior Kelsey Opiela came third in the same event with a time of 1:50.11

"It gets everybody hyped," Roth said. "These girls know how important these events are and we've been working on the details of these relays. We really honed in this week on doing the little things right and it really paid off."

Then sophomore Leigh Faires McGee turned around and won first in the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:36.72. In the 200-yard freestyle Walpole finished second with a time of 1:55.04 while freshman Bryanna Vasquez turned in a 1:57.28 good enough for fourth.

In the 100-yard backstroke freshman Addy de Tassanyi finished third in 1:00.83 while Sienczyk won the event at 57.81. Kwiatkowska finished with a time of 1:01.13. Senior Meaghan Rousset finished the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:04.50 to win the event and sophomore Ula Michalczyk finished just behind her in third with a time of 1:06.61.

Thurstin won the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.00, while Opiela came in just behind her at 24.76 for third place. Jensen clocked in at 25.03 for fifth while sophomore Micayla Morgan swam a 25.59 to finish eighth.

The Mean Green divers had a great day as well, with three season bests being set. In 1-meter diving senior Averie Ruiz finished second with a 259.2 dive, a season best. Sophomore Meaghan Miller finished third with a 239.475 dive while freshman Altaira Wallquist came fifth overall with a season best 232.45. Junior Gaby Silva finished seventh with a 202.45 dive.

In 3-meter diving Miller set a season best to finish third at 261.55. Silva came fifth at 234.5 while Ruiz and Wallquist came sixth (228.45) and seventh (222.45) respectively.

"They did really well," diving coach Mark Murdock said. "Everything is starting to come together. It's right in time for winter training. I'm pretty happy."

Sienczyk won the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:04.86 while Kwiatkowska came third at 2:12.66. Meaghan Rousett finished second in the 200-yard breaststroke at 2:26.31 with Beddingfield in third at 2:27.89.

McGee won a second individual medal in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:03.53. Freshman Jordan Gorham finished in fourth at 5:20.04.

Opiela clocked in at 58.13 to take home second overall in the 100-yard butterfly while Morgan came in at 1:00.36 for sixth in the event. Freshman Karigan Stanley swam it in 58.38 with Walpole clocking in at 59.37. Stanley finished third with Walpole just behind her at fourth.

Thurstin won the 100-yard IM with a time of 58.02 while Meaghan Rousset swam it in 1:01.74. Beddingfield clocked in at 1:02.57. Sienczyk won the event with a time of 59.81. Rousset and Beddingfield finished fourth and fifth respectively.

In the final event of the day the Mean Green would win again in the 200-yard freestyle relay. The winning team consisted of Opiela, McGee, Jensen and Thurstin and swam the event in 1:37.66. A team consisting of freshman Bryanna Vasquez, Morgan, Walpole and Stanley finished fourth at 1:40.36.

The Mean Green now take a break and will train through the winter. North Texas will return to action at home against Rice University on senior night on January 11.

"I'm really excited to go into our training camp with this kind of momentum," Roth said. "With the way they swam it really is exciting about what we can do when it comes to the back half of our season."