Women's Swimming & Diving Posts 10 More Top-Eight Finishes on Day 2 in Houston

Friday Results | Friday Team Scores

HOUSTON – The Green Wave women's swimming & diving team had another strong day at the Phill Hansel Invitational on Friday, winning one race, placing second in another and posting eight other top-eight finishes on the day.

Through two days of competition, the Green Wave are in third place out of 10 teams and have scored 677.5 points. For comparison, last year's Green Wave team had 690.5 total points at the end of the three-day meet.

"It was a hard fought day today for our women," Coach Katie Robinson said. "It's always good to see fast times this time of year, and what I am really happy about seeing is the size of the fight within the individuals on this team. Fighting tough when it doesn't feel good builds character and stamina. Today we were challenged to the max and we are stronger because of it. We have one more day to put more fast swims under our belt in this marathon of an event. I can't wait to see them charge through tomorrow. This is exactly why we train as hard as we do."

FINALS
The 200 medley relay team of Paris Zhang, Kate McDonald, Kaitlin Simpson and Shelly Zelnick got the night off to a great start, placing second and scoring 56 points for the Green Wave. The group finished in 1:41.21, the new second-fastest time in team history.

Olivia Johnson followed that with a huge win in the 400 IM, scoring 32 points for Tulane with that victory. Johnson touched the wall in 4:15.55, an NCAA B time and just .05 seconds ahead of the second-place swimmer in a thrilling finish. Also in the 400 IM, Jordan Morling scored 12 points with a 15th-place finish in 4:26.98 and Emily Ramier got the Green Wave five points with her 20th-place showing in 4:29.21.

After the 400 IM, Simpson and Gabby Vieira swam in the A final of the 100 fly with Simpson placing fourth and Vieira taking sixth. Simpson finished the race in 54.57 seconds while Vieira posted a time of 55.34 seconds. Combined, they scored 50 points for the Green Wave.

Zelnick made another appearance in the evening's finals in the 200 free where she placed eighth in 1:50.77. That scored another 22 points for Tulane. Swimming in the B final, Morgan Tacik picked up 17 points for the Green Wave with her 10th-place overall finish in 1:51.25.

In the 100 breast, McDonald took fourth place to put up 26 more points for the Green Wave, touching the wall in 1:02.37. Lena Hayakawa scored 24 points of her own by placing sixth in 1:03.39.

Tulane had two more swimmers in the top eight in the 100 back with Zhang placing fourth in 54.62 and Barker taking sixth in 55.57, the pair combining for 50 more Tulane points. Vieira also scored 16.5 points with her tied-for-10th-place finish in 55.70, and Golba earned the Green Wave six points by placing 19th in 55.86 seconds.

To close out the night, the Green Wave's 800 free relay squad of Zelnick, Tacik, Simpson and Zhang finished fourth in 7:26.25. That mark scored Tulane 52 points and is the new fourth-best mark in team history.

MORNING PRELIMS
The morning races got off to a great start as Johnson qualified for the evening finals with a second-place showing in the 400 IM with a mark of 4:17.65, an NCAA B time. Also qualifying for the event finals in the evening were McDonald in 4:23.11, Morling in 4:24.68 and Ramier in 4:29.15. Alex Lakota and Ellie Vincent also qualified for the finals with Vincent eventually taking 34th and Lakota placing 38th.

After that, Simpson swam the 100 fly in 54.83 seconds and qualified for the finals in fourth place. Gabby Vieira also earned herself a spot in the finals with an eighth-place finish of 55.51.

Zelnick qualified for the A final in the 200 free with her time of 1:49.62 for seventh place in the prelims. And Tacik was just short of the A final but easily qualified for the B final with a time of 1:51.02 for 10th place.

McDonald then had her second qualification of the morning, swimming to a new personal best in the 100 breast with a time of 1:02.11. That time was good for third in the qualifying. Lena Hayakawa swam the race in 1:03.33, putting her sixth in qualifying and also earning her a spot in the top final with McDonald while also setting the new fourth-best time in team history. Jeni Griffin finished 30th and Golba was 35th in the 100 breast, giving them spots in the evening finals as well. Griffin would end up in 29th place in the finals while Golba placed 37th.

Finally, in the morning's 100 back, Zhang swam an NCAA B time of 54.31 seconds, just missing out on her own school record that she set at the AAC Championship last year by 0.06 seconds. Still, Zhang's time was impressive and won her the prelim to put her in the A final in the evening. Courtney Barker was also impressive, taking fifth in 55.18 to move up to fourth all-time in team history in the event. Vieira (11th, 55.84), Golba (22nd, 56.50), Morgan (40th, 58.54) and Inger-Ane Schefte also qualified for the 100 back finals. In the finals, Morgan would take 38th while Schefte was 37th.

DIVING
During the early afternoon, Anise Muir dove to a personal-best 258.45 in the 3-meter springboard, putting her fourth in the qualifying order and earning her a spot in the evening session. Katie Nicol, meanwhile, scored a 196.90 and just missed out on the event finals.

In the evening finals, Muir would finish in seventh place with a score of 227.60, scoring 36 points for the Green Wave.

Action in Houston continues on Saturday with seven more events: platform diving, the 1650 free, the 200 back, the 100 free, the 200 breast, 200 fly and 400 free relay. Prelims will begin at 10 a.m. with finals set to take place at 5 p.m.

Women's Swimming & Diving Posts 10 More Top-Eight Finishes on Day 2 in Houston

Players Mentioned

Lena Hayakawa

Alex Lakota

Anise Muir

Emily Ramier

Kaitlin Simpson

Shelly Zelnick

Paris Zhang

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