Sports Swimming & Diving

UH swimming and diving dominates en route to fifth straight AAC title

The UH swimming and diving team celebrates its fifth straight American Athletic Conference championship on Saturday evening. | Courtesy of UH athletics

The UH swimming and diving team celebrates its fifth straight American Athletic Conference championship on Saturday evening. | Courtesy of UH athletics

The Houston swimming and diving team cruised to a fifth straight American Athletic Conference championship on Saturday in Dallas.

The Cougars started the event strong and never looked back. After grabbing second place in the day’s opening event, freshman Abby Jackson won the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:01.03. 

Senior Iona Sacha finished the 200-yard individual medley with a stellar time of 1:58.01. Freshman Mai Ortega Bonilla grabbed third place with a finishing time of 2:01.65. 

The Cougars finished day one with the 400-yard medley team, composed of Sacha, sophomore Audrey McKinnon, senior Katie Higgins and senior Mykenzie Leehy getting first.

The second day saw the Cougars growing the lead they finished within day one. The Cougars finished the 100-yard butterfly in both first and second place with Higgins getting first and Jackson getting second. 

Leehy continued her hot streak on day two, finishing first in the 200-meter freestyle, with a time of 1:46.27. Sacha also saw another strong performance on day two, with Sacha finishing with her best 100-yard backstroke time of the day in the final, a time of 53:17.

As the diving events began, the Cougars’ win streak did not slow down. Junior Katie Deininger finished first, grabbing 20 points for the Cougars with a score of 322.70. Freshman Hedda Grelz got the Cougars 16 points with a score of 309.90, finishing third on the day. 

The UH swimming and diving team landed three out of five of the best individual divers on the weekend, Grelz, Deininger and Chase Farris getting first, fourth and fifth, respectively. 

The Cougars also saw both of the top two swimmers on the day, with Leehy and Sacha finishing first and second. 

Overall, the team closed out an impressive performance on day three, finishing first and winning with 1,009, with SMU finishing second with 753.50.

“Hard to quantify what this group overcame this year and in the last two weeks,” UH swimming and diving head coach Ryan Wochomurka wrote in a tweet after the events. “No power, no water, no pool, but NO EXCUSES! Defining moment for this program. This was a Culture Win!”

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