Miami Takes Fourth at Georgia Tech Invitational
Nov. 21, 2010
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Atlanta, Ga. – The University of Miami swimming and diving team concluded its three day affair at the Georgia Tech Invitational on Sunday evening, finishing in fourth place with a total score of 519 points. UM finished the weekend setting seven new school records in the pool, and claiming nine NCAA provisional qualifying times.
Miami was fourth out of 13 participating schools, and finished ahead of all Atlantic Coast Conference opponents except for Florida State, who finished second overall with 1,045.5 points. Texas A&M won the event with a score of 1,735.5, and the University of Florida was third (939 pts).
The highlight of day three was junior transfer Whitney Stephenson (Grass Valley, Calif.) collecting the victory in the “B” final of the 200 backstroke, and setting a new school record in the process with a time of 1:58.35. That passed current Hurricanes senior Deidre Novotny (Palm Harbor, Fla.) atop the 200 back leader board, where Novotny set the mark in 2009 at the ACC Championships. The time for Stephenson also served as an NCAA “B” qualifying mark, making the 200 back event the eighth “B” cut performance for the `Canes on the weekend.
Junior Roxanne Meyer (Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa) finished with a personal season-best mark of 2:02.64 in the race.
In the 100 freestyle, it was senior Annika Saarnak (Pühalepa, Estonia) grabbing her third NCAA “B” cut time of the year with a fifth place finish in the “A” finals, touching the wall in a time of 50.12. For Saarnak, the time is a new career-best performance.
Miami began the day with sophomore Christine Anderson (Chattanooga, Tenn.) laying claim to a UM season second-best time of 17:13.84 in the 1650 freestyle. Anderson already holds the season’s best mark of 17:09.91 from a head-to-head meet with the University of Houston earlier this month.
In the diving portion of the day’s events, junior transfer Carrie Dragland (Woodinville, Wash.) scored a second place finish on the platform, turning in a score of 278.50. UM freshman Thea Vock (Clermont, Fla.) finished in fourth place with a score of 265.50. Fellow freshman Lindsay Lester (San Jose, Calif.) finished seventh with a score of 206.15. For all three divers, the event was their first platform diving competition of the year.
In the men’s platform finals, freshman Samuel Dorman (Tempe, Ariz.) finished with 309.50 points to claim a sixth place finish in his collegiate debut atop the 10-meter platform. Dorman battled back in the finals after sitting ninth through the preliminary round of dives.
The weekend was capped off with yet another NCAA “B” cut time in the 400 free relay, as the team of Annika Saarnak (leadoff), Kelsi Hall (second leg), Whitney Stephenson (third leg) and Lauren Jacoby (anchor) finished fourth overall with a time of 3:24.30. The time is a UM season-best performance, and gave Miami nine (9) NCAA provisional qualifications on the weekend.
“Having all of these NCAA `B’ cut times is awesome,” said UM fifth-year head swimming coach Christie Shefchunas. “We learned a lot in this meet, and I think it’s setting us up for a great second half of the season and a great ACC Championships.”
The Hurricanes will take the next week off before getting back to the water when they travel to the Texas Invitational hosted by the University of Texas in Austin. The event begins Thurs., Dec. 2, and runs through Sat., Dec. 4.
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