University of Houston
North Texas
Cougar Swimming & Diving Opens Home Season with Victory
10/20/2001 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Oct. 20, 2001
HOUSTON, Texas - The University of Houston swimming and diving team opened its 2001 home season in fine fashion Saturday with a 184-112 win over North Texas at the UH Natatorium.
The Cougars, who improved to 1-2 in dual meets this season, won 12 of the day's 16 events, including the last six, to earn their first victory.
Sophomore Yulia Pakhalina, senior Stacey Ebeling and senior Elissa Nelson each won two events to lead UH, while Jessica Dewitt, Corrie Phares, Falon Hopkins and Lucile Turpin collected single wins in events. In addition, the Cougars claimed first place in both the 200-yard medley relay and the 800-yard freestyle relay.
Pakhalina, who captured the NCAA national championships in the one-meter and three-meter diving competitions a year ago, was an easy winner in both categories Saturday. Her season-best score of 400.35 in the three-meter competition was nearly 140 points better than her next closest competitor, and she proved to be more than 120 points better than second place in the one-meter event with a season-best tally of 351.53.
Ebeling captured first place in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:07.40 and added another first place in the 100-yard freestyle with a Cougar season-best time of 55.08.
While Ebeling was winning in the short events, Nelson proved to be queen of the water in the distance competition. The Alta Loma, Calif., native started the individual events in the 1000-yard freestyle with a mark of 10:39.08 and finished her day with a time of 5:17.88 in the 500-yard freestyle. In both events, she ended at least 10 seconds faster than the second place finisher.
Corrie Phares won the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:33.08 to set a new Cougar best this season, while Falon Hopkins earned a first-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly with a Cougar season-best time of 59.63.
In the relay events, the UH team of Ebeling, Hopkins, Jessica Blake and Rory Linn started the day for the Cougars on a winning note by capturing the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:53.12. The Cougars' 800-yard freestyle relay team of Ebeling, Nelson, Blake and Meagan Wein ended the meet with a first-place finish in a time of 8:05.07.
The Cougars will hit the road for their next meet when they face Louisiana-Monroe in a 1 p.m. match Saturday in Monroe, La.
