DENTON, Texas – The Little Rock swimming and diving team competed at North Texas this morning, led by two individual first-place finishes by sophomore
Annya Grom. While the Trojans were beat out 178-99 by the Mean Green, there were several consistent swims from last weekend to today as the team gets into the thick of mid-season competition.
RESULTS (PDF)
"Feels good to get the first away meet in," said head coach
Amy Burgess. "Being on the road for the first time after a year, it was good to see the team step up and push through the uncomfortable side travel can bring. We have a lot to take away from today and improve on. I'm looking forward to seeing how the team can build upon this meet going into our first conference competition next weekend."
Relays
The meet opened with the 400 medley relay, where the A relay team of seniors
Regan Lawrence and
Palmer Ristroph along with sophomores
Fer Moussier and Grom posted a third-place finish at 3:59.01, just three tenths behind second place. Grom was easily the best anchor in the pool, hunting down the competition with a split of 50.53, over two seconds faster than the next freestyle leg.
The sprint freestyle relay concluded the meet, where the Trojans took silver with a combined itme of 1:39.48. This time around it was the team of Grom, freshman
Gabriella O'Neil, sophomore
Asmalia Redzuan, and Lawrence that were able to out-touch third place North Texas by five one-hundredths of a second.
Freestyle
The 1000 kicked off today's individual events, and this time it was
Clare Sprinkle who led the Trojans. The freshman paced fairly well throughout the race and shaved off nearly six seconds from last weekend, touching the wall at 11:01.19 to finish fourth. Senior
Lily Kerr also collected team points with a time of 11:14.32 for fifth place.
O'Neil swam to second place in her first 200 freestyle of the season, posting a strong in-season time of 1:56.95. Junior
Lea Zengerling stayed impressively consistent from weekend to weekend, stopping the clock at 1:57.68 for a third-place finish.
Lawrence took home third in the 50 freestyle at 25.49, less than two tenths of a second behind third place, while freshman
Aubry Matthews was right behind at 25.67.
Grom returned in the 100 free to pick up an exciting victory at 51.36. The sophomore and her top competitor from North Texas were exactly neck-and-neck at the 50, each splitting 24.82, before Grom was able to bring it home for the win by 12 one-hundredths. Classmate
Khadijah Brown also earned points toward the team score with a time of 56.76.
Freshmen O'Neil and Sprinkle posted solid times in the 500 free, both holding a 32-second pace to finish with times not far off of their swims from last weekend. O'Neil came in at 5:19.87 while Sprinkle touched the wall at 5:22.89.
Backstroke
Sophomore
Fernanda Gamez showed prowess in the 100 backstroke twice today, recording a split of 1:01.64 in the medley relay at the beginning of the meet before dropping to a 1:01.47 to lead Little Rock in the individual event, good for third place overall. Lawrence also took off some time from her earlier relay split, stopping the clock at 1:01.98 in a tight race.
It was Zengerling who led the Trojans in the 200 back for the second meet in a row, finishing at 2:11.94. Both her third and fourth 50 splits were 33.69, showing grit and composure in the long backstroke race. Gamez and freshman
Taylor Floyd were not far off, coming in at 2:13.51 and 2:14.51.
Breaststroke
Grom continued to make waves in the 100 breast, clocking in at 1:04.50 for the win. Meanwhile, Ristroph also collected team points as the other Trojan under 1:10, posting a time of 1:08.16 for fourth. The senior led the team in the 200 however, coming in at 2:29.10. Freshman
Lexie Shelton was close behind in her breaststroke debut day, finishing with a time of 2:30.31.
Butterfly
Moussier and classmate
Brianna Ridings both earned team points in the 200 butterfly, recording times of 2:13.39 and 2:16.21, respectively. In the sprint fly race, it was Redzuan as the only Trojan under a minute, coming in at 59.89. Freshman
Karina Harr and Ridings were right in the thick of it as well, touching the wall at 1:00.69 for the former and 1:00.92 for the latter.
200 IM
Sophomore
Ashleigh Green was the top Little Rock swimmer in the 200 IM for the second straight meet, stopping the clock at 2:15.49 for second. Shelton was right there as well at 2:15.85, helped by the quickest breaststroke split in the pool.
For the latest information on Little Rock Swimming and Diving, make sure to check out
LRTrojans.com. You can also find the team on social media at @LittleRockSwim on
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