With 27 event wins across two meets over the weekend, the swimming and diving team is rolling as they prepare for their Colorado road trip next week. | Courtesy of UH Athletics
The swimming and diving team improved to 4-0 on the season following back-to-back meets against the SMU Mustangs and North Texas Mean Green. The meets acted as the home-opener for the team, and head coach Ryan Wochomurka’s athletes did not disappoint.
Over the two meets, the women had 27 top-place finishes, winning the meets by a margin of 120 points and 159 points, respectively. The weekend was a dominating display that will prepare the Cougars for their upcoming road meets.
Each meet started off with wins for the Cougars in the relay races. Against SMU, the combined effort of sophomores Laura Laderoute and Peyton Kondis, freshman Rebecca Cox and senior Cait Horner won the 200-yard medley relay in one minute, 43.82 seconds.
Against North Texas, Laderoute and Cox were joined by sophomores Angeliki Mavrantza and Zarena Brown in the 400-yard medley relay. Together, they came out winners in three minutes, 43.09 seconds.
Over the course of the weekend, five Cougars repeated as champions between the two meets. Junior Conor Glenn won the 1,000-yard freestyle in 10 minutes, 18.39 seconds against SMU and in 10 minutes, 26.15 seconds against North Texas.
Laderoute won the 100-yard backstroke in 55.82 seconds and 56.67 seconds in the respective meets.
Against SMU, Horner tied with sophomore Hanna Blewett in the 50-yard freestyle, both finishing the race in 24.17 seconds. But Horner was the sole victor against North Texas. She claimed her second title in as many days with a time of 24.07 seconds.
Mavrantza was the only swimmer with two wins on both days. Competing in the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke, Mavrantza beat out all competitors and teammates. Against SMU, she won the 100-yard in one minute, 4.14 seconds and nearly matched that time against North Texas, finishing the race in one minute, 4.39 seconds.
Redshirt senior Micaela Bouter was perfect in the diving events over the weekend, winning both the 1-meter and 3-meter dives. Against SMU, Bouter scored 281.18 points in the 1-meter and 286.20 points in the 3-meter.
Sophomore Lauren Burrell was right behind her each time, placing second in each event both days.
Now the Cougars will get back to training. Their next meets are on Nov. 3 and Nov. 4 at Colorado State and Northern Colorado, respectively. But with the entire team getting time in the pool and performing well this past weekend, they should be ready later down the line when they face the top competition in the country.
