Swimming Splits Squad for Weekend Action (Divers win their meet, Swimmers finish 3rd at Rice)

ABOUT THE HOUSTON DIVING INVITATIONAL
For the second straight season the Cougars will host the Houston Diving Invitational. The field includes North Texas, Georgia Tech, and Air Force.

The competition will include the 1-meter, 3-meter and Springboard. All results can be found on Dive Meets. Action is set to begin Oct. 11 and conclude on Oct. 12.

ABOUT THE RICE INVITATIONAL
The two-day meet will be scored in a ‘championship format’ where each team has one score and can expect to finish 1-to-5 by the very end. Action is set to begin on Friday at 3:30 p.m. and will conclude on Saturday afternoon. The full meet schedule can be found below.

Friday, 3:30 pm
400 MR
400 IM
100 free
200 breast
200 back
100 fly
10 Minute Break
100 IM
1000 free
200 FR

Saturday, 10:30 am
200 MR
500 free
200 fly
100 back
100 breast
200 free
10 Minute Break
50 free
200 IM
400 FR

At Rice, the Cougars walked away with a team score of 812 points, behind first-place Rice and second-place Georgia Tech after taking first-place in five events.

Audrey McKinnon had a strong weekend, posting a first-place finish in the 200 Breaststroke at 2:19.69 and a ninth-place finish in the 400 Individual Medley at 4:33.78.

Peyton Kondis took home both a first and second-place finish during the meet, taking first-place in the 100 Breaststroke at 1:04.92 and second-place in the 200 Breaststroke at 2:20.74.

Zarena Brown led the Cougars in a pair of events, with a second-place finish in the 200 Freestyle with a time of 1:53.01 and another second-place finish in the 500 Free at 5:02.81.

Ioanna Sacha secured a top finish in the 200 Backstroke with a field-leading time of 2:03.11 in the event.

Mykenzie Leehy and Kathryn Power concluded the meet with second-place finishes of their own as Leehy led the Cougars in the 50 Free with a time of 24.27 and Power took silver in the 100 Backstroke after touching the wall at 57.46.

Houston won two of the four relays swam at the meet. Laura Laderoute, Kondis, Katie Higgins and Leehy combined for a time of 3:50.01 in the 400 Medley Relay and a first-place finish. Brown, Leehy, Samantha Medlin and Power clocked a time of 3:30.30 in the 400 Freestyle Relay to take home top honors in the event.

Over at the Houston Diving Invitational, the Cougars tacked on 160.00 points for a first-place team finish.

The Cougars swept the 1-meter, as Jolie Blodgett, Katie Deininger, and Chase Farris took the top-three spots in the event. Blodgett won the 1-meter with a score of 266.05, racking up 48.10 points on her opening dive after successfully performing a Forward 2 ½ Somersault Pike. Deininger scored 264.75 points for second-place, followed by Farris in third-place with 251.30 points.

Deininger and Farris notched top-five finishes in the 3-meter as well as Deininger finished the event with 291.55 points for second-place after collecting 54.60 points on her second dive of the day (Back 2 ½ Somersault Tuck). Farris finished the event in fifth-place with 271.10 points.

In the final diving event of the meet, Farris walked away with a first-place finish after scoring 237.95 points on the Platform. Farris scored a staggering 66.70 points on her final dive of the day after successfully performing a Forward 2 ½ Somersault 1 Twist Pike off the 10-meter platform. Blodgett finished among the top-five in the event with 200.10 points for fourth-place.