Going for their second straight C-USA championship -- and third in four years -- the Owls are off to a good start in Saturday's final evening of competition:

Erin Flanigan (16:24.94) and Quin Christian (16:40.79) finished 1st & 4th (24+19=43 points) in the 1,650-meter race, extending the Owls' team lead over Florida International, 724-534. (Panther swimmers finished 2nd, 12th & 17th for 34 points (21+9+4).)

Iceland native Johanna Gustafsdottir won the 200-meter backstroke for FIU, but four Owls combined for 17 more points than the Panthers in this event (49-32) to extend Rice's overall lead over FIU to 773-610. (Point for diving, in which Rice does not compete, have also been added into the team totals.)

Rice's points in this event came from:

Taylor Armstrong - 4th, 1:59.31/19 points
Michelle Gean - 9th, 2:04.31/14
Lauren FitzGerald - 11th, 2:00.72/11, and
Marita Sailor -16th, 2:03.91/5

WTG, Owls!!

Wow! Cora McKenzie led Rice to a 1-4-6-7-8 finish in the 100-meter freestyle, giving the Owls 91 points and 224-point team lead over FIU: 864-640!

Rice's point-getters were:

Cora McKenzie, 1st/49.76/24 points
Karina Wlostowska,4th/50.29/19
Chelsea Fong, 6th/50.92/17
Marissa Konicke, 7th/51.03/16
Kim Steinhouse, 8th/51.11/15

BTW, Live results are posted here: http://www.atlantaswimming.com/liveresul.../index.htm

Owls extend their team lead to 914-672 with a 2-7-10 (50 points) performance in the 200-meter breastroke. FIU's finished 5-9 (32 points).

Rice point-getters were:

2nd - Rachel Moody (2:13.46/21 points)
7th - Shelbi Ragsale (2:18.83/16)
10th - Madison Livingston (2:20.95/13)

Casey Clark wins the 200-meter butterfly (1:59.20/24 points), her third event win of the championship. Chelsea Fong is 9th (2:03.56/14).

The Owls are not letting up down the stretch, beating FIU 38-26 in this event, extending their team lead over FIU to 952-698.

Go Rice!!

Congrats to the women. They are having a great year.

Rice women swimmers complete the successful defense of their C-USA swimming title with a decisive win in the 400-meter relay, tallying an even 1,000 points for the championship tourney.

Cora McKenzie, Casey Clark, Marissa Konicke and Karina Wlostowska sped to a 3:19.32 finish, well ahead of 2nd-place team, FIU (3:20.74).

Team totals after 41 events (I don't think there are any more to be scored):

1) Rice - 1000
2) FIU - 740
3) ECU - 700
4) WKU - 686
5) North Texas - 571
6) Tulane - 463
7) FAU - 438.5
8) ODU - 415
9) Marshall - 328.5

Congrats to the Owl Champions!!

HOOT!

Great job Owls!

Nice round number score!

Wow, awesome job, particularly without any diving points to buoy them.

Coming from someone who used to swim Masters with Rice (before we moved out to San Diego), I have to give great credit to the swim team and also to Seth. He is a great coach and is active in the community. From what I recall, he had a big influence on the new recreation center. We are lucky to have coaches like him and Wayne and David.

Just imagine if we had a diving team.

(03-01-2014 10:40 PM)seniorowl Wrote:  Coming from someone who used to swim Masters with Rice (before we moved out to San Diego), I have to give great credit to the swim team and also to Seth. He is a great coach and is active in the community. From what I recall, he had a big influence on the new recreation center. We are lucky to have coaches like him and Wayne and David.

Just imagine if we had a diving team.

Add womens tennis to the above list.

(03-01-2014 11:03 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  [quote='seniorowl' pid='10491145' dateline='1393731651']
Coming from someone who used to swim Masters with Rice (before we moved out to San Diego), I have to give great credit to the swim team and also to Seth. He is a great coach and is active in the community. From what I recall, he had a big influence on the new recreation center. We are lucky to have coaches like him and Wayne and David.

Just imagine if we had a diving team.

We had a diving team long ago, along with Men's Swimming. Seth has done wonders, resurrecting a program destroyed by his predecessor. Too bad diving and the guys were collateral damage.

Speaking of the swim team....I saw Carter Graves at the pool last night here in Coronado, California.

A former Owl swimmer, she is tearing it up in international paddleboarding competition. This is a great article:

http://www.coronadonewsca.com/news/coron...f887a.html