Nov. 20, 2015
Houston Invitational Day 2 Results 
| Houston Invitational Day 2 Scores
UT Diving Invitational Day 2 Results
DENTON — The North Texas swimming and diving team continued its busy weekend in the pool with the second day of competition at the Phill Hansel Invitational in Houston and the University of Texas Diving Invitational in Austin.
Four swimmers advanced to the A finals of their respective events, and after day two, North Texas remains in seventh place of 10 teams with 394.50 points.
After setting season-best marks in the preliminaries to advance to the finals, sophomore Sarah Vaisse placed second and fellow sophomore Claudia Kitching finished fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke, again setting season-best marks in the finals.
Vaisse became the second-fastest swimmer in program history with her time of 1:02.73, while Kitching became the third-fastest with her time of 1:02.81, only behind Krista Rossum in the event. Earlier in the evening, sophomore Isabelle Morris also took third in the 200-yard freestyle with a season-best time of 1:48.94, becoming the third-fastest swimmer in program history in the event.
In the last individual event of the evening, the 100-yard backstroke, after posting the third-fastest time in the preliminaries (55.65), senior Bianca Bocsa finished fifth overall with a season-best time of 55.36.
Other top individual finishers included sophomore Caroline Culpepper, who finished 13th in the 400-yard individual medley with a season-best time of 4:27.22, and sophomore Sydney Buckley, who finished 16th overall in the 100-yard butterfly after posting a season-best time of 57.12 in the preliminaries.
North Texas competed in two more relay events on Friday, taking fifth in the 200-yard medley relay with a season-best time of 1:43.29 and ninth in the 800-yard freestyle relay, also with a season-best time of 7:35.37. In all, the Mean Green had a combined 21 swimmers finish in the top 40 of the preliminaries and advance to the finals of the five individual events, including the four that advanced to the A finals.
On the boards in Austin, competing on the 1-meter, junior Samantha Scheck again led the way, finishing in 26th place overall with a score of 212.00, followed by senior Jasmine Abercrombie in 27th place with a score of 208.25.
“We had a good day with a few difficulties,” diving coach Mark Murdock said. “The divers are having to learn how to remain confident in themselves when their lists are not going as planned. There are still a few things we need to focus on to get where we want to be.”
Quick Hits
- In addition to Culpepper, who posted a time of 4:27.22 in the preliminaries, a trio of seniors in Ashley Payne (4:36.17), Gaby Colunga (4:39.94) and Haley Goertz (4:44.17) advanced to the finals in the 400-yard individual medley.
- Three swimmers advanced to the finals of the 100-yard butterfly, with freshman Kelsey Opiela (57.37) and senior Michelle Balcaen (59.25) joining Buckley, who posted a season-best time of 57.12 in the preliminaries.
- All four swimmers competing the 200-yard freestyle advanced to the finals with Morris leading the way, followed by sophomore Deneen Carter (1:55.41), sophomore Barbara Wasilewska (1:55.36) and freshman Katie Moore (1:55.74).
- In addition to Kitching and Vaisse, who both advanced to the A final, freshmen Meaghan Rousset (1:05.92) and Kathleen Rousset (1:05.92) and sophomore Sydney Buckley (1:07.47) advanced to the finals of the 100-yard breaststroke.
- Led by Bocsa, North Texas sent five swimmers to the finals of the 100-yard backstroke. The other four finalists were Ashley Stone (57.20), junior Emily Rush (57.91), senior Sarah Manning (58.11) and freshman Natalia Kwiatkowska (58.30).
- The team of Bocsa, Vaisse, Buckley and Morris finished fifth in the 200-yard medley relay with a season-best time of 1:43.29, while the team of Culpepper, Morris, Carter and Moore finished ninth in the 800-yard freestyle relay, also with a season-best time of 7:35.37.
What’s Next
Both the North Texas swimmers and divers wrap up their respective weekends on Saturday at the Phill Hansel Invitational and Texas Diving Invitational. The swimmers will compete in five individual races and one relay, while the divers will compete on the platform boards on Saturday.
