With one meet gone, swimming and diving goes on the road to face the Cardinals of Incarnate Word. | File photo/The Cougar
Swimming and diving will be on the road again Thursday for their second meet of the season.
After earning the top finish at North Texas on Sept. 29, the Cougars will travel to San Antonio to face the Incarnate Word Cardinals. Last year, the Cardinals were a middle-of-the-pack team in the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association, but they will be a good early test for the Cougars.
At North Texas, the Cougars continued their strong performance from last year’s conference meet. The Cougars reached the podium in 11 events with wins in six of those.
Sophomore Peyton Kondis helped her team win two of the eight relays that they medaled in. In the 3×100 breaststroke, she was joined by sophomores Angeliki Mavrantza and Gaby Jimenez. Together they finished with a time of three minutes, 17.56 seconds.
The other race was the 4×100 medley. There she was joined by fellow team captain junior Eleanna Koutsouveli, sophomore Zarena Brown and freshman Rebecca Cox. Together they won the race in three minutes, 52.01 seconds.
Redshirt senior Micaela Bouter began her final season with wins in both the diving events, technically. In both the 1-meter and 3-meter springboard, there was a three-way tie between Bouter and sophomores Lauren Burrell and Katelyn Abernathy.
In the 1-meter, their scores were 403.25, and in the 3-meter, their scores were 402.45.
The Cardinals, meanwhile, are coming off a second-place finish at the Rice Invitational on Oct. 6. There they reached the podium in 10 events with four second-place marks and no wins.
Two athletes from the Cardinals to keep an eye on are Natasha Fung and Abigail Meyer. At the CCSA Championships last year, both Fung and Meyer set school records in their respective events — Fung in the 100-yard breaststroke and Meyer in the 200-yard backstroke.
Fung, the Freshman of the Year last year, will be an interesting match for Kondis as the two will be facing off against each other in the breaststroke races.
All in all, the swimming and diving team should have another strong performance Saturday. The Cardinals will give them a good challenge, but the Cougars should be able to use this meet to better prepare themselves for conference play.
