(Stuart Palley)
The SMU men’s and women’s swimming teams wrapped up the Classic at SMU on Saturday night. The men placed second in five of their events, and qualified for NCAA consideration in four events. Pontus Renholm, Alex Hetland, Luka Vrtovec and Thomas Fadness helped the Mustangs clinch second place as well as an NCAA consideration time of 1:28:18 in the 200 medley. However, the Texas All-Stars ate up the competition, setting a new meet and pool record with a time of 1:26:77, adding one more event to put them into first place overall.
Renholm provided SMU with its other second-place finish after recording a 1:46:98 time in the 200 backstroke. Texas All-Star Aaron Peirsol, an Olympic gold medalist, defeated Renholm with another new pool and meet record of 1:39:78. Vrtovec won second in the 100 freestyle, clocking an impressive 44.32 time, just one second short of first place winner, TAS Garrett Weber-Gale.
The men wrapped up their night with a second place finish in the 200 freestyle relay with the help of Vrtove, Fadness, Renholm and Shane Milu with a time of 1:20:51. The men fell within NCAA consideration time in each mentioned event.
In men’s diving, Matthew Culbertson took third place in the three-meter board, totaling 279.85 points after a series of six dives. SMU finished the meet in with 300 points, while the TAS finished with 370 points.
The men will get a break next weekend before returning to the pool on Jan. 25 when they travel to TCU.
Meanwhile, the women were in College Station where diver Britney Yancey secured a first place win for the Mustangs in the three-meter board against No. 1 Auburn and No. 6 Texas A&M on Saturday night.
Yancey outscored two A&M divers, as well as one Auburn diver, with a score of 288.90; 17 points higher than the second place finisher. Audra Egenolf won second for SMU in the one-meter board, finishing just six points behind the first place finisher.
SMU’s swimmers finished in the top five in eight events, with both relays finishing in fourth. The 200 medley relay team, made up of Anja Carman, Devon Callaghan, Angela San Juan Cisneros and Petra Klosova finished with a final time of 1:44:45, just three seconds over the first place team. Candance Blackman, Jennifer Blackman, Klosova and San Juan Cisneros finished their 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:22:89.
Candace Blackman added a third-place finish to her team’s overall score, touching in at 1:48:28 in the 200 freestyle, while Jennifer Blackman clocked in at the same event with a 1:49:39 time, giving her a fifth-place finish.
The women lost to top-ranked Auburn 218-72, and lost to A&M 211-84.
