Huskers Travel to Austin for Texas Invitational

Meet: Texas Invitational
Date: Thursday, Dec. 2 ? Saturday, Dec. 4
Time: 10 a.m. (Prelims) / 6 p.m. (Finals)
Site: Austin, Texas
Next Meet: at South DakotaState (Dec. 12)

 

Huskers Travel to Austin for Texas Invitational

The Nebraska swimming and diving team travels to Austin, Texas, this weekend for the three-day Texas Invitational in the Lee and JoeJamailTexasSwimmingCenter. The meet will be Nebraska’s second consecutive Invitational, as it finished fifth in the Husker Invitational Nov. 20-23.

 

A talented field of seven other teams will join the Huskers in Austin to make up the eight-team meet, including Arizona, Arizona State, SMU, Texas, UCLA, WashingtonState and Wisconsin. Six of those seven teams are ranked, including Arizona (4th), SMU (14th), UCLA (15th), ArizonaState (16th), Texas (17th) and Wisconsin (20th).

 

The Huskers finished sixth out of 14 teams in last year’s Texas Invitational with 198 team points, as Arizona took the title with 859 team points.

 

After this weekend’s meet, the Huskers travel to South DakotaState on Dec. 12 for their third dual meet of the season. NU will look for its first victory of the year after falling to Big Ten foes Illinois and Iowa to begin the season.

 

Review: Nebraska Finishes Fifth at Husker Invitational

Courtney Jolly won the platform dive and Jess Andrews finished fifth in the 100-yard freestyle in the seventh and final session of the Husker Invitational on Nov. 23. Jolly capped off an impressive weekend with her second win on the diving boards, as she took the one meter title on Nov. 21.

 

Other top-ten finishers on the afternoon for Nebraska were Brandie Kavalec in the 200-yard backstroke (7th ? 2:08.78), Kaitlin Arntz in the 200-yard breaststroke (9th ? 2:26.07), Kelsey Grushecky in the 200-yard butterfly (8th ? 2:08.41), Blaine Hoppenrath in the 200-yard breaststroke (9th ? 2:09.26) and Emily Burbach in platform diving (6th ? 179.50).

 

The Huskers finished in fifth place with 867 team points, finishing behind IowaState (979), ColoradoState (1,067), North Texas (1,079) and the meet winners, Rice (1,200).

 

Jolly led the Huskers during the four-day meet with two wins, in the one meter and platform dive, in addition to a second-place finish in the three-meter dive. The Huskers posted season-best times in 14 events during the weekend.

 

Last Year: Huskers Finish Sixth at Texas Invite

Nebraska ended its final competition of the 2007 calendar year by improving its standing at the Texas Invitational with a sixth-place finish out of 14 teams Saturday night in Austin, one spot higher than its previous finish at the Texas Invite from 2004.

 

For the second consecutive day during the three-day meet, breaststrokers Adrienne Goodman and Kaitlin Arntz delivered two of NU’s best performances, as each qualified for the B Final of the 200-yard breaststroke. Following a 16th-place finish in Friday’s 100 breaststroke, Arntz placed 12th in the 200 in a season-best time of 2:18.94, just seven one-hundredths of a second off her career-best clocking of 2:18.87 from the 2007 Big 12 Championships. Goodman finished 16th in 2:24.66, also a season-best time. Arntz’ finish was the second-highest of the meet for Nebraska behind freshman Brandie Kavalec’s 11th-place showing in the 1,650-yard freestyle in a season-best time of 17:22.95.

 

Sophomore Hailey Dean was one spot away from making it a trio of Huskers in the 200 breaststroke B Final, but instead won the C Final (17th overall) by shattering her career-best mark by nearly two seconds with a time of 2:20.88. Sophomore Colleen Criss also set a career best in the C Final to finish 20th with a time of 2:25.19, while freshman Julie Giehl was 21st 2:33.12.

 

Just one event later, sophomore Mariah Hutchinson gave Nebraska two winners in the C Final races (17th overall), by taking the 200-yard butterfly in a career-best time of 2:02.76.

 

The Huskers saw extensive improvement in the relay races in Austin as four of its five relays set season-best times. The streak nearly reached five in a row Saturday night, but Nebraska’s 10th-place 400-yard freestyle relay (freshman Jess Andrews, junior Jenny Toler, junior Jenna Stroud, senior Lynn Siemert) missed its season best by one-tenth of a second (3:28.67).

 

TEAMS

Arizona
Arizona State

Nebraska

SMU

Texas

UCLA

Washington State

Wisconsin

 

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Thursday, Dec. 4

100 Butterfly

500 Freestyle

200 IM

50 Freestyle

200 Freestyle Relay

400 Medley Relay

Three Meter Dive

 

Friday, Dec. 5

400 IM

200 Freestyle

100 Breaststroke

100 Backstroke

200 Medley Relay

800 Freestyle Relay

One Meter Dive

 

Saturday, Dec. 6

200 Backstroke

100 Freestyle

200 Breaststroke

200 Butterfly

1,650 Freestyle

400 Freestyle Relay

Platform Dive