Women's Swimming
Swimming & Diving Has Strong Showing On Day Three Of C-USA Meet

Swimmers set two school records and divers sweep 1-meter event

Freshman Courtney Forcucci won the 1-meter and finished runner-up in the 3-meter
 
Freshman Courtney Forcucci won the 1-meter and finished runner-up in the 3-meter
  
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March 1, 2008

Complete Results

Houston-- The University of Houston swimming & diving team moved into fourth-place after a strong showing on day three of the Conference USA Swimming & Diving Championships at the UH Campus Recreation & Wellness Center Natatorium.

The Cougars totaled two school records, three NCAA Zone Diving Qualifiers and two NCAA "B" times.

Today's strong showing gives the Cougars breathing room over fifth-place Marshall and brings them within 66 points of third-place East Carolina. SMU maintains it's top position and leads second-place Rice heading into the final day of competition.

Junior Andrea Pa'lmai set the tone early when achieved a school record of 4:21.67 in the 400-yard individual medley. The time is a NCAA `B qualifying time, which placed her third overall and was good enough for NCAA consideration.

In the evening session, Junior Sasha Schewendenwein blazed the fastest 200-yard freestyle in school history with a time of 1:47.55 to finish as the bronze-medalist.

The time is one of the Top-40 times swam in the United States this year.

The South Africa native also finished first in the 100-yard backstroke consolation.

Brittany Copeland swam a 50-yard split of 24.05 in the 200-yard freestyle relay was 10th-best in school history. The Raleigh, N.C. native swam the opening leg. A Championships.

The 200-yard freestyle team of Copeland, sophomore Jessica Shamburger and freshmen Lindsey Graves and Paige Bissett placed fourth overall with a time of 1:36.79.

Also scoring for the Cougars was freshmen Andrea Kells with 7th-placed time of 56.92 making her all-timer Top-10 performer in that event. She also finished 12th in the 100-yard breastroke (1:09.27) Other Cougar finishes included junior Doreen Polotzek in the 100-yard butterfly (58.39,13th) and the 100-yard breastroke (1:09.67,14th). Freshman Paige Bissett finished 15th in the 100-yard butterfly (59.37) and 12th in the 100-yard backstroke (59.21). Junior Jessica Shambuger swam a 58.80 (11th) in the 100-yard backstroke.

 

 

"Our team is very young and consists of mostly freshmen and sophomores," head swim coach Mark Taylor said. "Today's performances buy our young swimmers should greatly improve out recruiting. Once our depth improves, I see nothing but bright days for our program here at Houston."

On the diving side, the Cougars continued their dominance as they swept the 1-meter diving event.

Freshman Courtney Forcucci won the event with a final point total of 287.25, senior Ginni van Katwijk finished second with a tally of 277.60 and freshman Lacey Truelove closed with a six-dive score of 251.65.

All scores were NCAA Provisional `A' marks, which automatically qualifies them for the NCAA zone diving meet.

The Cougars top diver, Anastasia Pozdniakovia, is on an Olympic waiver and did not participate in any diving events as she prepares to represent her native country Russia in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

"It was great to have a nice showing today, but the NCAA is our ultimate goal," said head diving coach Jane Figueiredo. "Our goal every year is to make it to the NCAA and this is our last meet in preparation for the NCAA Qualifier in two weeks."

The meet concludes Saturday at 10 a.m. CST, with the preliminaries of the 200-yard backstroke, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard backstroke, 200-yard butterfly and 1,650-yard freestyle. Preliminaries for the men and women' platform diving are slated to begin around 1 p.m. with the finals for the day's events starting at 6 p.m. Single-day tickets are available for $10 for adults and $5 for students with ID. Youth includes children from 3 years old to high school. Children who are 2 years old and younger are admitted free. All students from Conference USA schools are admitted free with a valid student ID. Gates will open, and tickets will be sold beginning one hour prior to the meet. In addition, a wide variety of Championship merchandise will be available near the Tickets table. Fans should note that cash only will be accepted at the Tickets table. This marks the fifth consecutive season that the Cougars have hosted the league's postseason event. UH is the only school in the league to host the meet at an on-campus site.

Tickets