LITTLE ROCK – The Little Rock swimming and diving team closes out its regular season and honors their seniors
tomorrow as they take on SEC opponent Vanderbilt in the Donaghey Aquatic Center. The senior's ceremony will be at 10:15 a.m. while the meet begins at
10:30 a.m.
The Trojans will be honoring eight seniors as they begin to close out swimming careers at Little Rock:
Emma Doll,
Anela Everett,
Tori Fryar,
Nuria Gallego Murcia,
Courtney Goff,
Samantha Gray,
Darby Harmon, and
Cassie Sanchez.
"This is a very special group of seniors that have left their mark on Little Rock swimming and diving," head coach
Amy Burgess said. "Their leadership and dedication have taken this program to a new level. They have inspired me and their teammates every year, and we are beyond excited to honor them
this Saturday. It is hard to say goodbye and imagine the team without them, but there are great things ahead for this group."
Vanderbilt is sitting at 3-6 in dual competition while finishing sixth in the Houston Invite. Burgess gave high praise for the SEC Conference as one of the top swimming conferences in the country and had to say about Vanderbilt, "They are a great team and bring good competition that we as a team like to see this time of the year."
The Trojans last competed on Jan. 13 versus conference opponent Southern Illinois and in-state rival Ouachita Baptist. Little Rock was able to take the victory over the Tigers 245-38 but fell to the Salukis 76-224.
"Last week was a big challenge going against one of the MVC tops teams as well as coming off two weeks of intense workouts," Burgess said. "We saw some really good racing and pushing through to get that hand on the wall. There were many season-best times and that energy has carried into training this week."
Five Trojans were able to beat their season-best times starting with Isabelle Finze in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:11.45, enough to be her overall personal best as well. Two broke their season-best time in the 500-yard freestyle.
Lily Kerr clocked in a time of 5:19.34 and
Alexis McCauley got a time of 5:59.24.
Mia Gibson set her season-best time in the 200-yard backstroke with a time 2:17.21, and
Samantha Gray got her season-best score in the one-meter dive with a score of 252.82.
After this weekend, the Trojans have their sights set on the Missouri Valley Conference Championship on
Feb. 14-17. Burgess believes that the rigorous training and competition the team has been through this past month will pay off in the future.
"This is always one of my favorite times of the year," Burgess said. "Coming off winter break and having the hardest training of the year is behind us, and now, the excitement is all around. The MVC Championship is what we work for all year, and this team is primed for greatness. We are ready to turn some heads and show the MVC what Little Rock swimming is capable of. "
This week's meet will include a very different format compared to the rest of the season and will include sprint shootouts. The format for the shootouts will be three rounds of the 50-yard butterfly, the 50-yard backstroke, 50-yard breaststroke, and the 50-yard freestyle. In the first round, the top four finishers for each race will advance to the next round and then only the top two from each race will advance to the final round from there.
| EVENT ORDER |
200 Medley Relay
300 Free
50 Fly Shootout
50 Back Shootout
50 Fly Shootout Rd 2
50 Back Shootout Rd 3
50 Fly Shootout Final Round
50 Back Shootout Final Round
1M Diving
100 Fly
100 Back
100 Breast
100 Free
Diving
50 Breast Shootout
50 Free Shootout
50 Breast Shootout Rd 2
50 Free Shootout Rd 2
50 Breast Shootout Final Round
50 Free Shootout Final Round
100 Free Relay |
