Box Score
DENTON, Texas - North Texas swimming and diving came up short against Rice, 150-144, after a thrilling final race that included three relay teams within .21 of each other.
The diving events took place first with the Mean Green's Rebecca Taylor earning the top overall score of 292.2 on the three meter dive, and Catherine Johnson working her way to a first place finish in the one meter dive with 265.2 points.
In the swimming portion of the meet, North Texas took the 200 yard medley relay with the team of Mona Groteguth (27.13), Krista Rossum (29.03), Bryn Lewis (26.04) and Michelle Balcaen (24.11).
Rice won the next two events, the 1000 yard freestyle and the 200 yard freestyle behind the performances of Erin Flanigan and Chelsea Fong.
Groteguth took the next event for the Mean Green, the 100 yard backstroke, with a time of 57.38. Rossum followed that up with a time of 1:03.94 on the 100 yard breastroke to put North Texas in the lead.
Rice would take the next three events before Groteguth won the 200 yard backstroke with a time of 2:02.83, and Rossum tallied a 2:18.06 on the 200 yard breastroke for a first place finish.
Rossum would take the 15th event, the 200 yard IM, with a time of 2:06.71 setting up a 400 yard freestyle relay for all the marbles.
After some shuffling of the relay units by each coaching staff, the Owl's had a relay team that got first place followed by a logjam for second place where three relay teams, two from North Texas and one from Rice, all finished within .21 seconds of each other. Rice's second relay unit came out of the tight finish in second giving them the necessary points to seal the meet in front of the screaming crowd.
North Texas moves to 2-1 on the season in dual meets. The Mean Green's next meet is the UIW Invitational in San Antonio, Texas on Dec. 15.
