UNT Wins Swimming and Diving Event
SAN ANTONIO, Texas – North Texas swimming and diving broke several school records en route to a first place finish in the annual UIW Invitational at the Aquatic Center at Palo Alto College. This was the final meet for NT in the 2012 portion of its season.
“We have been training at a higher level than ever before, and it is so rewarding for the team to see that work pay off on only a few days rest,” head coach Joe Dykstra said. “We have never been even close to this good at mid season before, and it sets us up well for the Sun Belt Championships in 10 weeks”
Monday was the final day in the three-day meet that had already seen North Texas take a commanding lead over TCU, Rice, UIW and Missouri State.
Day three began with a strong showing from junior Rebecca Taylor in the platform dive. She came in second with a score of 198.05.
In the swimming portion, sophomore Kimmy Phillips started off the day strong for the Mean Green. Her time of 16:33.27 in the 1650 yard freestyle was good for first place in the event.
In the 200 yard backstroke ‘A’ group final, sophomore Mona Groteguth won the event with
a mark of 2:00.13, one second shy of the time she had posted earlier in the day during the preliminary round.
Sophomore Krista Rossum posted a dominant time of 2:13.56 on the 200 yard breaststroke, a North Texas school record.
In the final event, North Texas’ ‘A’ team for the 400 yard freestyle relay clocked a final time of 3:23.04, a nine second improvement from its preliminary mark and a North Texas school record. The team consisted of Weickgenant, Rossum, freshman Bianca Bocsa and senior Becca Ploetz.
“This was a great meet for us,” coach Dykstra said.
Other notable performances included Ploetz notching a 51.22 on the 100 yard free style during its final round, and Senior Catia Weickgenant swam a 2:00.94 in the 200 yard butterfly, a nearly three second improvement on her time from the preliminary round.
After the dust had settled, North Texas remained on top and brought home a big first place finish for the program in a meet that involved high level competition including a Rice team that beat NT in Denton earlier this season.
The final scores were as follows:
NT: 1911
TCU: 1810
Rice: 1689.5
UIW: 961
Missouri State: 523.5
NT swimming and diving returns to the pool Jan. 9, 2013 against Youngstown State.
