Swimming & Diving to Host Fall Invitational
11/19/2003 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Nov. 19, 2003
HOUSTON - After a near-three-week break, the University of Houston swimming and diving program returns to action this week as it plays host to the UH Fall Invitational, starting Thursday at the Campus Recreation & Wellness Center Natatorium.
The Cougars welcome Florida International, Incarnate Word, Arkansas divers and men's and women's divers from Tennessee to this week's event. Preliminaries for the swimming events begins at 10 a.m., each day with the finals slated to start around 6 p.m., later that evening. The diving competitions will be held each day between the swimming preliminaries and finals.
Thursday's list of events includes the 200-yard freestyle relay, 100-yard butterfly, 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard individual medley, 50-yard freestyle, 400-yard medley relay, 1-meter diving (women), 3-meter diving (men).
The meet runs through Saturday evening.
The Cougars (4-3) come into the meet after an impressive weekend on the road to close the month of October and open the month of November. UH split a tri-meet against Conference USA rival Louisville and host Kentucky in Lexington, Ky., on Oct. 31, and followed that with a tri-meet sweep of UL and Cincinnati in Ohio the next day.
Freshmen Szintia Szanto and Haley Menard have dazzled during their first collegiate seasons. A native of Budapest, Hungary, Szanto has already added her name to the Cougar record books in the 200-yard and 400-yard individual medleys.
Menard has been equally impressive, posting the team's top three fastest times in each of the 100-yard and 200-yard freestyle events.
On the diving side, sophomore Azul Almazan has lived up to her All-America status from a year ago. This season, Almazan has led a young Cougar diving corps and already been named C-USA Diver of the Week twice.
This week's swimming and diving event will be the first of several hosted by UH this season. The Cougars will play host to the Conference USA Championships on Feb. 26-28 and then welcome some of the area's finest divers during the NCAA Zone Diving Championships on March 11-13.
Players Mentioned
