HOUSTON, Texas – Little Rock Swimming delivered a strong performance on Friday night at the Rice Fall Splash, capturing two individual event victories and several top-three finishes against a competitive field featuring Rice, UTRGV, Loyola New Orleans, and St. Thomas.
The Trojans finished the opening day with 282 points, highlighted by senior Gabriella O'Neil's victory in the 100-yard Individual Medley and sophomore Megan Stewart's commanding win in the 400-yard IM. Both swimmers led wire-to-wire, solidifying Little Rock's momentum heading into Saturday's races.
Head coach Nathan Townsend shared his thoughts on the team's effort, saying, "The weather was absolutely awesome tonight, and it made for a great first session at the Rice Fall Splash. We had a lot of great performances across the board, which is really encouraging to see given how hard we've been training. It's rewarding to see our work translating into these kinds of results. A couple of big highlights tonight were Gabriela O'Neil winning the 100 IM with a new personal best that ranks third in program history, and Megan Stewart winning the 400 IM with a personal best as well — also making her the third-fastest performer in team history."
Relays
Little Rock's "A" relay teams came out strong in both relay events, starting the meet with a second-place finish in the 400-yard Medley Relay at 3:50.62. The quartet of Beatriz Comini Romero, Adara Stoddard, Amara Addison, and Gabriella O'Neil posted one of the program's fastest early-season medley times.
Closing out the evening, the Trojans claimed another runner-up finish in the 200-yard Freestyle Relay, clocking 1:34.47 behind Rice. The relay of Lena Nikolaeva, Addison, Olivia Elgin, and O'Neil capped the night with a strong final leg from O'Neil to secure the top-two finish.
Individual medley
The Trojans dominated the IM events, with Gabriella O'Neil claiming first in the 100-yard IM at 57.68, followed closely by Megan Stewart (58.33) and Adara Stoddard (59.59), giving Little Rock an impressive 1-2-4 finish.
Later in the meet, Megan Stewart earned the team's second victory of the night in the 400-yard IM, clocking 4:23.87 to top Rice's Ella Dyson by nearly three seconds. Freshman Lulu Szumski also placed strong with an eighth-place finish at 4:42.81, marking a solid showing for Little Rock's depth in the discipline.
Breaststroke
Little Rock's breaststroke squad continued their early-season success, with O'Neil (1:03.86) leading the Trojans in the 100-yard Breaststroke, finishing second overall. Teammates Stoddard (1:05.57) and Paige Pala (1:05.60) placed back-to-back in the top five, keeping Little Rock competitive in every heat.
Backstroke
Reigning school-record holder Amara Addison carried her strong momentum into the 200-yard Backstroke, placing fourth overall with a time of 2:05.37. Beatriz Comini Romero (2:07.21) and Lyla Roper (2:07.50) also swam season-best times, earning valuable points toward the team's overall score.
Butterfly
Freshman Lulu Szumski highlighted the butterfly races with a top-five finish in the 200-yard Butterfly (2:10.92). Her strong closing 50 helped her out-touch several competitors and mark one of her fastest collegiate swims so far.
Junior Olivia Elgin shared her perspective on the team's energy, saying, "I thought the meet was a lot of fun from the very beginning — from when we got into practice this morning all the way through competition. The energy was high, and it was such a nice change of scenery getting to swim outside in the sun. I think we all really enjoyed that. Having a smaller team helped us rally behind each other, and we did a great job of that. Everyone was cheering and feeding off each other's energy, which definitely showed in our races. We had a lot of season bests and even some personal bests today, which is really exciting and motivating for the rest of the team. It was a lot of fun, and we're excited to get back at it tomorrow."
Up next
Saturday, October 25 – 10:30 a.m.
400 free relay (5 minute break to follow)
200 breast
100 fly (10 minute break to follow)
200 free
200 IM (10 minute break to follow)
50 free
100 back
1000 free
200 medley relay
Diving 1m
Fans can follow live results and event updates throughout the weekend on MeetMobile by searching Rice Fall Splash 2025 and stay connected with Little Rock Swimming on social media for full coverage and recaps.
For the latest information on Little Rock Swimming, check out LRTrojans.com. You can also follow the team on social media at @LittleRockSwimDive on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
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