Swimming & Diving Heads To Tennessee For Saturday Meet
Nov 7, 2014 | Women's Swimming and Diving
Video Interview With Coach Robinson
NEW ORLEANS - The Tulane University women's swimming and diving team will look to build on the momentum of its most dominant performance to date when the Green Wave travel to Nashville, Tenn., to take on Western Kentucky and host Vanderbilt on Saturday at the Centennial Sportsplex. That contest is slated to start at 11 a.m. (CST).The Wave head to the Music City with a 1-2 dual-meet record to go with a second-place showing in the season-opening North Texas Relays in Southlake, Texas. Tulane enters the meet against the Commodores and Hilltoppers with a head of steam, however, after rolling past West Florida, 186-103, last Saturday in the Reily Student Recreation Center Natatorium.
"We're excited to be traveling to Nashville for this meet," Tulane head coach Katie Robinson said. "This will be very good competition that we'll be up against and it will certainly challenge us - especially our top kids. I'm really looking forward to seeing them under pressure and performing, and I think that will help us out as we approach our championship meet in a couple of weeks."
During last weekend's win over the Argonauts, the Green Wave posted top marks in all 16 events and junior diver Lauren Arnold posted an NCAA Zone Meet-qualifying score in the one-meter springboard with a 266.25 - the No. 5 overall score in Tulane history. The Green Wave, who exhibitioned the scores of the final three events against West Florida, posted 1-2-3 finishes in the 100 free, 200 free, 100 fly, 200 back and 400 IM, and tallied 23 season-best performances .
Headlining the list of season-best performances was freshman Alex Brindisi, who had a lifetime-best time of 2:05.94 in the 200 fly to win the event - a mark which ranks No. 7 in the Tulane individual record book - to go with a season-best 57.72 to win the 100 fly. Other season-best marks which led to individual wins were junior Mia Schachter won the 50 free and 100 free with respective times of 23.93 and 51.74, junior Rachel Schneider in both the 500 (5:09.50) and 1000 free (10:28.40), and freshman Alex Lakota in the 200 free with a 1:54.86.
Tulane also had season-best performances in the 200 medley relay where junior Elizabeth Cook, Schachter, senior Amy Needham and sophomore Jonna Frantz won with a 1:46.15 as well as the 200 free relay where freshman Kaitlin Simpson, Frantz, freshman Emma Lincoln and Schachter tallied a top-time of 1:36.36 in the final event of the day.
Also posting individual wins for the Green Wave were freshman Tirol Palmer in the 100 back (58.48), sophomore Joy Jason in the 100 breast (1:06.34) and 200 breast (2:23.63), and Cook in the 200 back (2:06.73). Junior Holly Grender, meanwhile, posted a meet-best mark of 4:31.60 in the exhibitioned 400 IM.
"Last weekend was good," Robinson said. "For that meet, we were challenged and it was good to see some people really step up and perform well. It was also a good confidence booster. We won a lot of the events. The girls were excited, happy and swimming well. It was a good meet for us to have heading into this weekend and the challenge that is ahead of us."
Vanderbilt enters the meet 7-5 on the year in dual-meet action and are fresh off a sweep of Marshall and Xavier last Saturday in Huntington, W.Va., with a 150-143 win over the host Thundering Herd and a 189-73 decision over Xavier. In that meet, Vandy posted first-place finishes in 10-of-16 events, including a trio of wins by Kara Lucenti. Kayla Moran won the 100 fly and the quartet of Moran, Branda Cha, Hannah Martin and Madeline Hunt 200 free relay.
Western Kentucky, meanwhile, sports a 2-0 dual-meet record on the strength of a 210-83 home win vs Delta State on Oct. 11 and a 165-123 victory over IUPUI last Saturday in Indianapolis, Ind. Against the Jaguars, a pair of Lady Toppers posted the fastest times in Conference USA as Nadine Laemmler won the 100 and 200 back with respective marks of 55.65 and 2:00.43. Hannah Musser posted a 55.07 in the 100 fly and a 2:01.33 in the 200 fly, and Western Kentucky finished first and second in the 200 medley relay with times of 1:43.53 and 1:45.47.
"We need to see some better times across the board," Robinson said of her goals for the team this weekend. "They've been doing a good job of bringing those times down throughout the season, but if there's any chance to do it this is the chance to do that and put together as many wins as we can against these two teams. They're both Top 50 programs, so it'll be a big challenge for our top kids to race against some big-time competitors."
Saturday's meet at Vanderbilt marks the final dual-meet competition of the fall for the Green Wave as Tulane will close out the fall portion of the schedule on Nov. 21-23 at the Pearland (Texas) Invitational.
The team's next home meet is slated for Jan. 24 when the Wave play host to North Texas in the Reily Center. Prior to the start of that meet, Tulane will honor the senior class of Evans, Loewen, Needham, Schelske, Molly Jubas and Laura Turpen with a special ceremony and admission is free.
Players Mentioned
