Swimming and Diving Finally Arrives in Arkansas
11/30/2001 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Nov. 30, 2001
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - It took far longer than it expected, but the University of Houston swimming and diving team finally made it to first-day competition Thursday at the Arkansas Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark.
The Cougars were unable to make it for the morning session of the meet - scheduled to start at 10 a.m. -- due to travel problems and finally arrived in time to compete in the finals during the evening session.
The women's diving competition on the one- and three-meter boards was postponed to Friday to allow Houston to compete.
The meet, which runs through Saturday evening at the Arkansas Natatorium, starts each day with swimming preliminaries at 10 a.m. The diving competition begins each at 1 p.m. with the swimming finals to start around 6 p.m.
UH faces the swimming teams of host Arkansas and Washington State and the diving squads of the Lady Razorbacks, Tennessee and Florida during the three-day event.
In the first individual meet of the evening, Elissa Nelson set a new Cougar season-best with a time of 5:07.60 in the 500-yard freestyle to place 12th. Jenni Pease, Agustina Foglietta and Linda Osborne also set personal season bests in the event.
Falon Hopkins shaved more than a quarter of a second off her previous Cougar season best in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.74. Laura Starr also set a new personal season best with a time of 26.26.
Jessica Dewitt earned a sixth-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley event with a time of 2:12.81. Vicki Blocker and Corrie Phares also set new personal season bests in the event.
The Cougars stood in third place after day one with 212 points. Washington State led the way with 358 points with Arkansas tallying 262 points.