Rice Crushes School Record in 800 Free Relay to Open Conference USA

Conference USA – Women

• Wednesday, February 27 – Saturday, March 2
• Georgia Tech Aquatics Center, Atlanta, GA (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Florida International (4x) (results)
• Live results
• Live Video: Feb. 28-  WATCH | March 1-  WATCH | March 2-  WATCH
• Championship Central
• Day 1 Results PDF

The Rice Owls and the 4-time defending champion Florida International Panthers split the wins on day 1 of the 2019 Conference USA Championships to share the lead after 2 relay events.

In the 200 medley relay, FIU swam a season-best of 1:38.35 in the 200 medley relay, with a winning team of Naomi Ruele (24.44 – back), Sara Gyertyanffy (27.08 – breast), Stephanie Hussey (24.12 – fly), and Helga Fodor (22.71 – free). That didn’t leave them too far ahead of the runner-up Owls, who touched in 1:38.70. The backstroker and butterfly legs were the difference-makers for FIU: they had a combined 7-tenths advantage on those two legs over Rice.

The 800 free relay, meanwhile, wasn’t quite as close. Rice swam a 7:07.77, which broke the school record, set in 2013, by almost 4 seconds. That ranks them 3rd among mid-major teams nationally this season, behind only Navy and Harvard (who were both 7:06s last weekend).

The winning team included Marta Cano Minarro (1:45.98) on the leadoff, Claire Therien (1:47..85), Ellery Parish (1:46.52), and Lindsay Mathys (1:47.42). Minarro’s leadoff split is the 2nd-fastest 200 free in school history, behind only NCAA National Championship qualifier Casey Clark, who swam a 1:45.69 in 2013.

While Rice should remain competitive in the swimming portion of the meet, they will ultimately succumb to the FIU divers. Rice doesn’t have any divers, while FIU went 1-2-3-4-5 in all 3 diving disciplines last season. In a meet that swims 3 finals but scores only 2, that’s worth 246 points – a tough deficit for the Owls to overcome. FIU won last year’s meet by 250 points with that 246-point diving advantage.

Team Scores After Day 1 of Competition:

1. (TIE) Rice/FIU – 74
3. (TIE) Marshall/North Texas – 62
5. (TIE) Florida Atlantic/Old Dominion