Swimming: WVU Moving in the Standings
February 19, 2005 08:40 AM | General
February 18, 2005
EAST MEADOW, N.Y. – The West Virginia University swimming and diving teams continued to climb in the standings during day three of the Big East Championships in East Meadow, N.Y., on Friday, Feb. 18. The men’s team moved up to fifth place, while the women jumped two spots to sixth place.
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| West Virginia's Maritza Paredes wins the women's 200 freestyle finals at the Big East championships held in East Meadow, N.Y., Friday night.
Steven R. Smith photo |
“Today was everything that we had been working toward all year,” said head coach Sergio Lopez. “Today was the day that all of the hard work that our Mountaineers have put in this season in becoming a team gave its dividends.”
Nine men and six women swimmers qualified for a combined 16 swims in the evening’s finals.
“Tonight it was Mountaineer territory all over the Natatorium,” said Lopez.
Highlighting the day and evening for the women was freshman Maritza Paredes. The Juarez, Mexico, native qualified second in the 200 free by breaking the school record with a finish of 1:49.61.
Paredes then broke that record again in the finals en route to winning the event in 1:49.06 and becoming the first female Mountaineer swimmer to win an individual event in 2005. That time also makes the NCAA “B” cut.
Also, in the 200 free freshman Erin Tudor took 11th place overall and earned the fifth fastest time in school history (1:52.74).
For the men, freshman Nick Delic set the school record in the 100 breast on his way to qualifying first in the 100 breast (55.80) and fellow freshman Pablo Marmolejo tied his own school record in the 400 IM (3:57.80).
In the 100 breast finals Delic took home the title by breaking his school record set just hours earlier by more than a second (54.77) and making the NCAA “B” cut. Also in the race, teammate Felipe Cunha finished seventh in 56.58 seconds -- the fourth fastest time in school history.
Jjunior Megan Carlson broke her own school record in the 100 breast with a fourth-place finish in the finals (1:04.95). Teammate Olga Tzinker took 12th in the race with a season-best time of 1:07.06.
In the 400 IM finals, Marmolejo was able to shave his time to 3:54.037 and take second overall. The time bettered his old school record by almost three seconds.
Despite having senior leader Pedro Pinto miss the finals in the 100 fly due to a false start, WVU was still able to score high as junior Chris Hagedorn finished third with the fourth fastest time in school history (48.92).
Wrapping up the night the men and women both scored high in the 400 medley relay.
Tina Gabrilo, Carlson, Paredes and Tudor took fifth in the women’s final with a time of 3:53.85, which bettered their season-best time by more than five seconds.
Delic, Pinto, Matt Drozd and Rick Mann combined to finish second in the men’s relay with a time of 3:17.46. The time that the men were able to put together broke an 18-year-old school record by more than two seconds.
“It was a great day to be a Mountaineer,” said Lopez.
WVU returns to action on Saturday, Feb. 19, at 10 a.m. to begin preliminary swims on the last day of competition at the BIG EAST Championships. Finals for day four are set to begin at 6 p.m.
