Tulane Travels to Houston for American Conference Championships
Feb 16, 2016 | Women's Swimming and Diving
New Orleans -- On Wednesday, February 17, the women of Tulane swimming and diving will begin competition at the 2016 American Athletic Conference Championships. The meet will take place at the University of Houston's Campus Recreation and Wellness Center Feb. 17-20 and will feature some of the conference's hottest competition this year.
Competition opens on Wednesday, Feb. 17 at noon with both men's and women's diving prelims. Relay action will begin at 6:00 p.m. and will feature the 800 free and 400 medley relays.
The Green Wave are coming off of a two-week break from competitive swimming. Tulane's last meet also took place in Houston and featured tough competition in the hosting Cougars, LSU and Rice. At the meet, the Green Wave performed well in relay action, notching second- and third-place finishes in the 400 free (3:26.02) and 200 medley (1:43.95) relays, respectively.
A handful of individual swims also made a mark, with freshman Paris Zhang's first-place efforts in the 100 back (55.96) and 100 free (51.36). Senior Mia Schachter also notched a top-three finish with her third-place time in the 100 breast (1:03.76).
This year's American Conference Championships will feature familiar faces in teams from Houston and SMU as well as some new competition from East Carolina, Cincinnati and Connecticut.
This season, the Green Wave have faced off against Houston on two different occasions. In addition to the Houston quad at the end of January, the teams first met in November at the Phill Hansel Invitational. At the meet, the Green Wave swam to a second-place finish overall, while setting five school records and over thirty personal bests.
Tulane also battled SMU in November at the Reily Center Natatorium. Both teams swam competitively and the meet was ultimately decided in the last race of the day, with SMU taking the top spot in the 400 free relay to grab the victory over Tulane.
At last year's swimming and diving championships, Tulane finished fourth overall, the best conference finish since the 2005-06 season. The Green Wave also claimed eight school records throughout the four-day event. In addition, both Lauren Arnold and Maren Kjell qualified for finals in the platform dive, where Arnold would claim the bronze medal.
Each day of championship action will be streamed through American Digital Network. Day one video can be found here. For more information about the American Conference Swimming and Diving Championships, visit the official site of this weekend's competition here. Fans can keep up with Tulane swimming and diving by following @GreenWaveSwim on Twitter.
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