Results 

DENTON, Texas (1/19/08) After a strong showing against a talented University of Houston squad yesterday, the North Texas swimming and diving team dropped a dual-meet decision Saturday afternoon to Rice, 154-134.

Several races during the meet came down to a few fractions of a second, but North Texas could not pull away in the final lengths to secure first place finishes. Rice out-touched the Mean Green in both the 400-yard medley and 400 freestyle relays to pick up a valuable nine points in both events.

One of the better performances in the water for the Mean Green was put on by Bonnie Garcia-Meitin. Garcia-Meitin, a senior from Angleton, Texas, finished first in the 100 back (59:12), second in the 200 back (2:06:92) and helped North Texas finish second in each of its respective relay teams.

“The experience kind of hurts right now losing such a close meet,” Garcia-Meitin said. “But right now coach [Joe] Dykstra is really getting us to focus on playing through pain and swimming hard despite fatigue.”

Perhaps one of the most impressive swimming performances of the day came by Rice’s Brittney Massingale who won the 1000 free in a convincing manner with a time of 10:25:80 and quickly jumped back in the water for the next event to finish first in the 200 yard free.

Alicia Hale is continuing a strong 2008 campaign as the Schertz sophomore has now recorded a first place finished in 3 of her last 4 meets.

“We had a solid day,” head coach Joe Dykstra. “I’m generally pleased with the results of today’s meet considering in the past, we have never been in the same realm as Rice. But today was a competitive meet. It came down to fractions of a second in a lot of events and for us there’s no shame in losing a hard-fought battle.”