The SMU men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams traveled to Houston for the Conference USA championships this past week. The men came in second and the women came in third.
Sophomore Mindaugas Sadauskas of the men’s team set a record when he won the 100-yard freestyle in 43.04 seconds.
Tom Cole, a senior and captain of the team, won awards in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:54.54, which also allowed him to set a new meet record. He won an NCAA B qualifying time and was best in the field by more than four seconds.
Sadauskas also contributed to the first place 400-yard freestyle relay team with David Larsson, Giedrisus Andriunatis and Blaz Korosec with a time of 2:56.37.
Freshman Braeden Newton had an impressive performance for his first C-USA championship meet and took third in the 200-yard back stroke.
Mitchell Thompson beat his opponent by 27 seconds in the 1650 yard freestyle with a time of 15:12.78. This also nominated him for NCAA B consideration.
As for the women, they had the top two finishes in the 200-yard backstroke. Therese Svendsen got first with a time of 1:53.82 and Deanna Matthews came in second with a time of 1:59.03. Both women were awarded NCAA B consideration for their times.
For the 1650-yard freestyle, freshman Alice McCall got first and was awarded NCAA B qualifying time with a time of 16:36.83. This was enough to beat her opponent by eight seconds.
Another freshman Nina Rangelova came in second in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 50.10 that also gave her NCAA B consideration.
Junior Raminta Dvariskyte set a meet record in the 200-yard breaststroke with an NCAA B qualifying time of 2:13.88.
Denisa Smolenova gave the Mustangs another impressive first place in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:59.53, and also earned NCAA B consideration.
In the diving category, Audra Egenolf also won points for the Mustangs with a score of 291.60.
In the 400-yard freestyle relay Rangelova, Emily Vavourakis, Genny Konicke and Monika Babok had a time of 3:19.88 and won the relay, also with an NCAA B qualifying time.
The American Short Course Championships are next on the schedule for the swimming and diving teams in Austin starting Thursday.
