University of Houston Athletics
Swimming & Diving Ready to Compete at C-USA Meet
2/25/2004 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Feb. 25, 2004
HOUSTON - After more than five months of practice and competition, the University of Houston swimming and diving program begins the most important stretch of its schedule as it competes at the 2004 Conference USA Women's Swimming and Diving Championship and C-USA Men's Invitational beginning Thursday.
The meet begins Thursday morning and will run through Saturday evening. Each day's action begins at 10 a.m. with the swimming preliminaries. Once the preliminaries are completed, the diving competition will start around 1 p.m., each day with the swimming finals slated to begin around 6 p.m.
Hosted by the Cougars, the C-USA meet will be held at the Campus Recreation & Wellness Center Natatorium, located on the corner of Calhoun and University on the UH campus. This will be the first time in the three-year history of the C-USA meet that it will be held at the site of a participating school.
In addition to UH, the meet will feature men's and women's teams from Charlotte, Cincinnati, East Carolina, Saint Louis, Louisville and TCU and a women's squad from Tulane.
All-session tickets are available at the UH Ticket Office or through www.UHcougars.com. Prices are $25 for adults and $10 for youth, identified as all students of participating C-USA schools with valid IDs and high school students and younger. Single-day tickets -- $10 for adults and $5 for youth - will not be available until Thursday morning.
The Cougars enter the meet after setting a school single-season record with nine dual-meet victories in 2003-04, including three dual meet wins against C-USA opponents.
On the diving side, UH will be looking for its third consecutive winner in a number of C-USA postseason honors, including Diver of the Year, Diver of the Meet, Freshman Diver of the Year and Diving Coach of the Year.
Sophomore Azul Almazan, a four-time C-USA Diver of the Week honoree, returns as the defending platform champion and should be a force on the 3-meter springboard as well. Anna Kiess gives the Cougars an excellent opportunity for their third consecutive C-USA Freshman Diver of the Year award winner and was honored as C-USA Diver of the Week earlier in the season.
In swimming, freshman Szintia Szanto has emerged as the Cougars' steadiest performer and posted some of the school's fastest times in four different events this season.
Junior Kristin Bay has recorded the team's seven fastest times in each of the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke events, while senior co-captain Lucile Turpin should be among the leaders in the distance freestyle events.
UH also returns three members - Bay, senior co-captain Kristina DeWitt and Stacey Williams - from its group which won the 2003 200-yard medley relay, the first C-USA swimming championship for the Cougars.
Players Mentioned
