Swimming & Diving Opens Season, Wins Eight Events at Dual-A-Pool-Ooza

Friday, October 14

Houston, Texas

4 PM

Tulane University

142

FIU

Swimming & Diving Opens Season, Wins Eight Events at Dual-A-Pool-Ooza

Oct 17, 2016 | Women's Swimming and Diving

HOUSTON - Tulane swimming & diving team (0-3) opened its season with eight first place finishes this past weekend at the Dual-A-Pool-Ooza event, hosted by Rice University.

"We faced three very tough teams this weekend and while the results show our team not swimming well, I feel that we had some great individual performances to bring home with us," head coach Katie Robinson said. "I think in losses we learn more than we do in wins, and this is a great time during the season to learn and keep growing as a team. We know what we need to do in training to be better and we will be better."

In Session One against FIU Friday evening, Joy Jason finished first in the 200 breast (2:21.95) and recorded the fifth-best individual time in school history. In addition, Paris Zhang swam to a No. 1 place finish in the 100 free (52.09) and Shelly Zelnick finished first in the 200 IM (2:08.46) in Session One. Team wise, FIU opened an early overall point lead, which proved to be to large of a deficit for Tulane to overcome, as the Wave fell, 142-82.

In Session Two against Denver, Ellie Sills captured first in the 200 fly with a time of 2:06.24, which ranked as the 10th-best individual time in school history. In Session Three against Rice, Nina Lazar earned a first place finish in the 3-meter dive with a score of 253.20, the fifth-best individual score in school history. Nina Gonzalez also finished first in the 200 fly (2:06.61), while Gabby Vieira recorded a top-place finish in the 100 back (57.35) in Session Three. Furthermore, Tulane's 100 medley relay team clocked a 49.31 finish, besting Rice in the event

Despite the strong individual performances from the Green Wave swimmers, Tulane fell 116 - 88 against Denver in Session Two and 113.5 - 72.5 against Rice in Session Three Saturday.
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"I'm proud of the spirit that our women had throughout this meet," Robinson said. "I'm especially proud of our seniors and how when it was their turn, they really stepped up and captured some great wins for our team. They also kept the spirit, excitement and attitude rolling and supported their team members on deck.

To compete in three sessions back-to back-to-back, and three different head-to-head duels, was extremely challenging for our women at this time of the season. This format will happen again in our in-conference meets, as well as the Phill Hansel Invite in November. We'll look to grow stronger as the season progresses and we expect that we will."

Tulane will next travel to Dallas to compete against SMU 11 a.m. Friday, Nov. 4.