Miami University
Miami Invitational
RedHawk Women Win Miami Invitational
12/3/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
Dec. 3, 2011
OXFORD, Ohio - Miami's women's swimming and diving teams swam away from the competition to win the meet and the men's team fought off strong competition to hold onto fourth place at the final session of the Miami Invitational Saturday night at the Nixon Aquatic Center.
The RedHawk women set the tone in the first event of the evening finals, swimming to first place in the 200-yard medley relay as juniors Leah Thornton, Stacie Clagg, Maegan O'Connor and Bekka Westrick swam an NCAA Division I "B" time standard of 1:42.70.
Thornton pulled the quick double-duty, swimming the very next event, coming in second in the 200-yard backstroke with a season-best 2:00.13. On the men's side in the same event, sophomore Mike Kline moved up from his 18th seed to take 12th place after a four-second time drop to 1:53.12, and junior Ian Joyce, who improved from 17th to finish 15th (1:55.60).
Freshman Courtney Collett improved by more than three seconds from the morning's prelims to re-set her lifetime best and win the event with a time of 4:53.00. Her effort was the third-fastest time in Miami history and fastest since '04 graduate Amy Miranda in 2003-04.
In the men's 500 free, junior Alex Reinhardt and sophomore Sean Minderlein both dropped time from their morning swims to finish 12th and 13th, respectively.
Westrick and O'Connor each picked up NCAA Division I "B" cuts in the 200-yard butterfly as they went 1-2. Westrick won the competition with a new meet and school record time of 53.53 as she became the first RedHawk to go under 54.00 in the event. She broke '09 graduate Allison Way's record from 2009. O'Connor equaled her lifetime best with a time of 54.53.
Westrick went on to win the 100-yard freestyle with time of 49.97, another NCAA "B" cut, as she swam the second-fastest time in Miami history behind only '09 graduate Alyson Schmidt, who holds the school record at 48.98.
In the men's 100 free, freshman Joe Baumgartner, who qualified 12th, sprinted to a win in his heat, moving up two spots to 10th place with a season-best time of 45.94. Sophomore Dan Nemeth turned in the best finish among the Miami men with his eighth-place finish in the 100 free.
Miami put up a dominating performance in the diving well with senior James Beres winning the three-meter competition for the men with a score of 406.35 and sophomore Nikki Craft winning on the one-meter board for the women with a score of 294.00. Junior Chris Hoppler was third on the three-meter for the men and junior Corey Bangs was the runner-up to Craft on the women's one-meter.
Other top finishers for the women were junior Molly Tyler who, on her birthday, moved up three spots in the 200-yard IM to finish fourth with a lifetime-best time of 2:05.82 and freshman Gabbie Pettinichi, who took second in the 200-yard breaststroke with a career-best time of 2:18.64. The relay team of senior Chelsey Bruington, juniors Maddie Kete and Ellen Barhorst and Westrick earned another "B" cut in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:24.59, finishing second.
Other top finishers for the men were seniors Kegan Rogers in 19th in the 100 fly (51.80) and Brendan Mellingi n 14th in the 200 breaststroke (2:09.83) and 12th in the 200 IM (1:55.89).
The Miami women finished with 2,637 points, outpacing Emory in second with 1,818 and Denison in third with 1,586.5. The men had 1,156 points in fourth place behind Southern Illinois in third with 1,456, Emory in second with 1,673 and Denison in first with 2,459.5.
The next competition for the men will be Dec. 29 against assistant coach Scott Usher's alma mater, Wyoming during a training trip to Colorado Springs, Colo. The women are off until Jan. 13, when both teams will host Cincinnati in a co-ed dual meet.
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