The SMU women’s swimming and diving team took to the poolthis weekend in the 11th annual SMU Women’s Swimming andDiving Classic in Perkins Natatorium.The competition involved onlyshort-distance races.

Teams were comprised of eight swimmers and nine divers and nopreliminary heats were held, only consolation and championshipfinals. In diving, Friday’s competition featured theone-meter event while Saturday featured the three-meter dive.

The Mustangs captured first place with a total of 346 pointsover the two-night event. The meet victory came over Rice, Indiana,South Carolina, the University of British Columbia andWashington.

On Friday night, the team suffered a minor setback after adisqualification in the first event of the night, the 400-medleyrelay.

In the second race, the 400-meter IM, SMU junior Sara Nordenstamcaptured fourth to give the Mustangs 11 points.

In the next event, sophomore Celina Lemmen gave the Mustangstheir first win of the night and earned the team 16 points.

Lemmen finished the 200-meter freestyle with a time of1:48.59.

In the 100-meter butterfly, senior Corrie Clark earned theMustangs 13 points with her second place time of 56.79.

In the diving competition, senior Elizabeth Pike finished with260.75 points, good enough for second place and only 4.25 pointsshy of the tally need to qualify for NCAAs.

Back in the pool, first-year Anja Carman captured another winfor the Mustangs with her 55.57 time in the 100-meterbackstroke.

In the next event, the 100-meter breaststroke, Clark placedfirst with a time of 1:03.05.

In the 50-meter freestyle, Washington’s Rachel Seely edgedSMU junior Laura Pomeroy by 31-hundredths of a second.Pomeroy’s second place finished added 13 points toSMU’s tally.

In the final event of Friday night, the 800-meter freestylerelay, the SMU team of Lemmen, Candace Blackman, Carman and LeaneDarling set a meet and pool record with their first-place time of7:20.04.

At the end of Friday night’s competition, the Mustangsfinished with 164 points. Washington finished the night in secondwith 141.50 points.

On Saturday night, the Mustangs started out just as they hadfinished Friday night’s competition. The team won the400-meter freestyle relay, the first event of the night. Blackman,Darling, Roxane Akradi and Pomeroy finished the event with a timeof 3:25.15.

Lemmen finished third in the next event, the 500-meterfreestyle, with a time of 4:54.11.

Anja continued her success at the meet in the next event, the200-meter backstroke, as the only swimmer to finish under twominutes in the race with a time of 1:58.26.

Nordenstam took second in the next event, the 200-meterbreaststroke with a time of 2:17.01, just three one-hundredths offCaitlynn Shortt’s (Washington) time of 2:16.58.

In diving, Pike finished second in the three-meter competitionwith a score of 283.00, more than enough to meet theNCAA-qualifying score of 270.

In the women’s 100-meter freestyle, Darling won her firstindividual event with a time of 51.46, just out touching HaleySkaggs of South Carolina who finished with a time of 51.51.

Carman’s success continued in the next event, the200-meter butterfly as she again finished first.

In the last individual event of the meet, the 200-meter IM,Nordenstam finished fifth with a time of 2:08.41.

In the 200-meter freestyle medley, the team of Darling, Pomeroy,Akradi, and Lemmen set a meet and a pool record with a time of1:33.71 beating second place finishers Indiana by more than twoseconds.

The team finished the meet with 346 points, more than enough forfirst place.

This is the fifth time the Mustangs have won the event and theteam has now finished in the top two nine out of the 11 years theevent has been held.

The women’s swimming and diving team is currently rankedNo. 9 in the first poll put out by the College Swim CoachesAssociation.

Carman won outstanding swimmer of the meet despite only swimmingthree final heats and one consolation heat.

“This award is very difficult to get when you only swim inthree finals and one consolation heat,” Collins said in apress release.

“What a great achievement to get as a freshman and it isvery well deserved.”

In addition to the meet honors, CollegeSwimming.com namedCarman National Collegiate Swimmer-of-the-Week for her performancethis weekend.

The women’s swimming and diving team competes againstTexas A&M at 6 p.m., Friday in Perkins Natatorium.