Swimming & Diving Preview
10/10/2005 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Oct. 10, 2005
HOUSTON - It's hard to imagine being unsatisfied with a Top 25 finish at the NCAA Championships, but that's exactly what the University of Houston Swimming and Diving program is.
While finishing among the nation's top collegiate teams be a lofty achievement for most programs, the Cougars do not plan on clinging to the laurels of their fifth consecutive Top 25 finish at the NCAA meet.
Instead, the team looks to a solid group of veterans and some exciting newcomers to propel them even higher during the 2005-06 season.
"We have a close-knit, family-style team this year. This is exciting for us," said head coach Mark Taylor, who begins his fourth season at the helm of the program in 2004-05. "With the happiness and the camaraderie of being like a family, we are looking for a lot of success because of that."
A year ago, the Cougars finished 20th nationally at the NCAA Championship behind the performances of divers Anna Kiess, Rachel Gitelson and Azul Almazan and equaled the best finish by any Cougar team since 1986-87.
As he opened fall practice in mid-September, Taylor said he was pleased with the performances of his returning swimmers during the off-season.
"The returnees have worked hard and it looks like they are going to be able to continue their improvement," Taylor said.
Those veterans, combined with a talented and versatile group of newcomers, gives Taylor a luxury which he has tried to build during his first three seasons.
"We have flexibility in our program now," Taylor said. "We are getting faster in the individual events. Across the board, we're going to have faster swimmers in each of the individual events than we have had in the last few years."
The Cougars also will welcome assistant coach Jarrod Marrs, who served as a volunteer assistant coach a year ago but was promoted to a full-time position during the summer.
Marrs, a 12-time collegiate All-American and three-time USA Swimming individual national champion, is "extremely well-versed in all types of coaching," Taylor said.
Sprint Freestyle Senior Tatjana Banjeglav returns as the elder stateswoman of the Cougars' sprinters.
Jenny Hagen returns for her sophomore season after setting a career best with a time of 54.51 in the 100-yard freestyle at the C-USA Championship.
Another sophomore, Nicole Vaiana, posted the team's second fastest time in the 200-yard freestyle with a clocking of 1:55.05 on a split during the C-USA Championship a year ago.
Thea Murray, Nicole Nugent, Sasha Schwendenwein, and Jackie Wilson will also compete in these events during their first collegiate seasons.
Distance Freestyle
Sophomore Marit Bloemer joined the 2005 Cougar team at the semester break in and wasted little time in making her impact felt on the team.
Her time of 10:21.48 on a split for the 1,000 yard freestyle at the C-USA Championship put her among the all-time fastest performers in that event in UH history.
By the time that the season ended, Bloemer had recorded the team's three fastest times in both the 500- and the 1,000-yard freestyle events.
Junior Alejandra Salazar was the team's second-fastest performer in the 1,000-yard freestyle and will be looked to for leadership as an upperclassman.
Vaiana was the Cougars' second-fastest performer in the 500-yard freestyle event a year ago and should challenge for playing time in the middle distance events.
Breaststroke
Seniors Tatjana Banjeglav and Randee Billips will be looked to as leaders in the breaststroke events.
Billips was the team's second-fastest performer in the 200-yard breaststroke, while Banjeglav set her season-best time at the C-USA Championship.
Junior Szintia Szanto will contend for C-USA championships in both events.
The Budapest, Hungary, native already has recorded four of the school's 10 fastest times in the 200-yard breaststroke and posted the team's three fastest times in both events a year ago.
Hagen also will add depth at this event after emerging as the Cougars' second-fastest performer in the 100-yard event a year ago.
Backstroke
A pair of newcomers - Michelle Hall and Andrea Pa'lmai - will lead the Cougars in the backstroke during their first collegiate seasons.
Butterfly
Szanto should be a leader for the Cougars' in this event after recording the team's two fastest times in the 100 and 200-yard events.
She already has clocked two of UH's all-time Top 10 fastest times in the 200-yard fly.
VanCleave and Hall also will challenge for time in the Cougar lineup during their first years at UH.
Individual Medley
As impressive as Szanto has been during the breaststroke and fly events, she has been even more dazzling during the IM.
After her first two seasons, she already owns half of the 10 fastest times in the 200-yard IM and four of the 10 fastest in the 400-yard event.
She broke a mark that stood for nearly two decades old with her time of 2:04.47 in the 200-yard individual to win the C-USA championship in that event, a first in UH swimming history.
Billips and Hagen will join Szanto in this event and add depth, while VanCleave will challenge the returning swimmers.
Diving
Under the leadership of diving head coach Jane Figueiredo, the Cougar diving corps looks to be another strong part of the program this season.
Figueiredo, who is the four-time defending Conference USA Diving Coach of the Year, begins her 16th season with the program in the 2004-05 season.
"One of the reasons our diving program is so successful is because of the strength of Jane and her international contacts, Taylor said. "We are extremely lucky to be able to pull in fabulous recruits, because they are lining up for the opportunity to be trained by her.
"She continues to astound and amaze all of us with the levels that her students-athletes achieve," Taylor said. "It's also a testimony to her student-athletes that they are willing to go as far as it takes and work as hard as they must to get to the level that they are."
Leading the way for the Cougar divers in 2005-06 is junior Anna Kiess, who finished as National Runner-up on the platform a year ago.
The Hannover, Germany, native also won her second consecutive C-USA 1-meter diving championship and was a four-time C-USA Diver of the Week during the regular season.
Rachel Gitelson qualified for her first NCAA Championships after winning the platform competition at the NCAA Zone Diving Meet.
At the NCAA Championships, she finished 12th on the platform to earn her first All-America honor.
Stephanie Mannella returns for her senior season in 2005-06 a year after qualifying for the NCAA Zone Diving Meet. She helped lead the Cougars to a sweep on the 3-meter springboard with a third-place finish at the C-USA Championship.
Anastasia Pozdniakova returns after sitting out the entire 2004-05 campaign as a redshirt.
Tania Cagnotto, who competed at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games, will add tremendous depth to an already talented group.
Schedule
The Cougars will begin competing in the newly aligned Conference USA this season. While the league lost several members, it also added several schools, including Rice, Marshall and SMU.
"The new Conference USA is smaller in numbers, but it's bigger in quality," Taylor said.
The Cougars open their 2005-06 home season on Oct. 22 when they play host to North Texas and New Orleans in a tri-meet at the Campus Recreation & Wellness Center Natatorium.
Also, UH will face Arkansas, Rice, LSU and Tulane in dual meets at home.
On the road, the Cougars will face, Texas, Rice, Texas A&M, North Texas, Wyoming, Nevada, SMU and New Mexico on the road during dual-meet action.
The regular-season culminates on Feb. 22-25 when UH hosts the C-USA Championship for the third consecutive season at the CRWC Natatorium.
"Hundreds of people come to the campus and find out how wonderful the University of Houston is and what a beautiful campus it is. We have a world-caliber facility," Taylor said. "That, with the world-class caliber of our Athletics Department, is going to make our team stronger and better."
Players Mentioned
