University of Houston Athletics
Swimming and Diving Holds Down Third after Day One
2/18/2002 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Feb. 18, 2002
HOUSTON, Texas - All-American and 2000 Olympic Gold Medalist Yulia Pakhalina continued her dominance and in the process helped stake her University of Houston swimming and diving squad to a third-place standing after the first day of the inaugural Conference USA her Swimming & Diving Championships held here at the IUPUI Natatorium.
Pakhalina won her 32nd straight diving competition, capturing the one-meter event with 370 points, easily outdistancing the competition by well over 100 points. Pakhalina led a one, five, six finish for the Cougars in the one-meter, as sophomore Veronica Smith took fifth, while freshman Lindsay Harvey finished sixth. Pakhalina will look to extend her streak tomorrow when she competes in the three-meter competition.
Heading into the second day of competition, the Cougars hold down third place with 159 points, trailing number-one Cincinnati (222) and second-place East Carolina (209). TCU (157), Louisville (104) and Saint Louis (86) round out the women's scoring after Sunday's competition.
Junior Falon Hopkins finished fourth in the 50-yard freestyle, clocking a season-best 24.06 in the event won by Cincinnati's Marein de Jong (23.13). Hopkins also contributed to the Cougars' third-place performance in the 200-yard freestyle relay, swimming the second leg on the 1:38.03 clocking-the top performance of the season for the UH team. Senior Stacey Ebeling and the freshman duo of Kristen Douglass and Kristin Bay swam the other legs.
Speaking of Ebeling, the Humble, Texas, native finished eighth in the 200-yard individual medley, swimming a personal-best 2:08.67 in the process.
Senior Elissa Nelson was the final individual to post points on the afternoon, as she clocked a season-best 5:02.68 in the grueling 500-yard freestyle. She narrowly missed her personal best of 5:01.11 she swam two seasons ago at the NIC Championships.
Finally, the Cougars 400-yard medley relay took fifth place with yet another season-best performance. The UH quartet of Jessica Blake, Ebeling, Hopkins and Bay finished the race at 4:01.39.
The Cougars hit the pool tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. with several preliminary events beginning with the 400-yard IM. Other events on the docket include the 100-yard butterfly-Hopkins specialty-200-yard freestyle, 100-yard breaststroke, 100-yard backstroke and the aforementioned three-meter diving.
