LITTLE ROCK – Saturdays are for the Trojans. The Little Rock swimming and diving team demolished Henderson State, took out St. Louis in a revenge win, claimed victory in 12 events, and posted an NCAA Zone Cut on the 1-meter board in a successful final home outing of the fall semester.
"We had a lot of fun swimming for all the parents visiting for parents weekend," said head coach
Nathan Townsend. "I felt like this was our best team performance so far this year. We had 16 personal bests and over 40% of our swims were season bests. This is great motivation as we prepared for our mid-season meet these next two weeks, and we can't wait to see what happens at House of Champions!"
Diving
Kyra Apodaca posted a season-best score of 268.10 on the 1-meter board to not only win by nearly 60 points but also secure an NCAA Zone Diving cut, the program's first since the 2016-17 season. The previous Zone qualifier before that was in 2013, making Apodaca one of a small yet elite group. She went two-for-two on the boards, taking first with 259.65 points on the 3-meter.
The NCAA Zone Diving Championships is a postseason competition for divers across the country in a final effort to secure a spot at the NCAA Championships, broken up into five different locations around the country. Apodaca made the cut by three points and will have the opportunity to compete at Zone D at the University of Houston from March 11-13.
Relays
Little Rock raced in the longest relay for the first time this year, the 800 freestyle relay. The team of
Olivia Elgin,
Cheryl Poulsen,
Adara Stoddard,
Jaelle Carlson turned in a time of 7:41.03, finishing over eight seconds ahead of the second-place St. Louis team. Already, the Trojans are only 8 seconds off of what their relay posted at the Missouri Valley Conference Championships this past season.
Just as exciting, the 200 medley relays finished 1-2 to close the meet. The A relay, made up of
Caitlin Romprey,
Lauren Pieniazkiewicz, Carlson, and Poulsen stopped the clock at 1:45.52, a team-best this season. Meanwhile, the B team of
Taylor Floyd, Stoddard,
Karina Harr and
Aubry Matthews posted a time of 1:47.97, approximately half a second ahead of St. Louis's A relay.
Freestyle Highlights
Overall, it was a great day for the freestylers. The sprinters went 1-2 in both the 50 and 100, with Poulsen making appearances in both. The senior won the 50 free with a time of 23.80, joined by classmate Matthews and her 24.81 second-place finishing, out-touching third place by one hundredth of a second. Poulsen then collected a personal best time of 52.42 in the 100 free while Carlson won the event, going under 52 seconds for the first time in the individual race this season to post a 51.88.
Elgin took home a solid win in the 500 free by over four seconds with a season-best 5:09.59, while
Duru Sibik posted a massive new best time of 5:19.44 for fourth place, an almost 10 second drop since last month's mark. In the 1000,
Gabriella O'Neil led the Trojans, clocking in at 10:54.46 for second place while
Lara Alsader notched a season-best 11:06.73 for fourth.
Butterfly Highlights
Fer Moussier claimed gold in the 200 butterfly, putting together a season-best 2:09.70 to win by over a full second. She also dipped under the one-minute mark in the 100 fly for the first time this year later in the meet.
The 100 butterfly saw Little Rock finish 1-2 yet again, with Carlson touching the wall first once again, putting up a season-best 56.57. She was followed by Harr, whose 58.03 beat out two St. Louis swimmers for big points.
Breaststroke Highlights
Stoddard was another Trojan swimmer that took home two golds in the tri-meet, along with two personal best times. She tied for first in the 100 with a time of 1:06.48 before touching the wall at 2:24.54 in the 200 to show off her well-roundedness. Pieniazkiewicz was next in the 100 to stop the clock at 1:07.37, while
Lexie Shelton finished third in the 200 in 2:28.47.
Backstroke Highlights
Romprey paced the Trojans in both backstroke events, claiming second place in the 100 back with a season-best time of 58.38 before turning around and taking third in the 200 back with a time of 2:09.12, another season-best. Floyd was not far off, also notching a pair of season-bests at 58.94 in the 100 and 2:11.09 in the 200.
IM Highlights
The final individual event of the meet was the 100 IM, where
Olivia Elgin wrote her name in
the Little Rock Top Times list with a winning time of 59.36. She was the only swimmer under 1:01, let alone the one-minute mark.
Up Next
The Trojans will head to the legendary IU Natatorium on the campus of IUPUI in Indianapolis for their annual midseason invitational. The House of Champions Invite runs from Thursday, November 16 through Saturday, November 18 and will be a chance for Little Rock to put up some fast times and high scores that may end up as seed times ahead of the MVC Championships in February.
View the full 2023-24 Little Rock Swimming and Diving schedule here.
Final Scores
Little Rock 222 - Henderson State 37
Little Rock 163.5 - St. Louis 111.5
St. Louis 220 - Henderson State 35
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
Facebook,
Instagram and
Twitter.
#LittleRocksTeam
