In their last meet of the calendar year, the No. 2 Arizona women’s and No. 6 men’s swimming teams came out of Austin, Texas, with their second consecutive victory at the Texas Invitational.
The women (3-0, 2-0 Pacific 10 Conference) accumulated 859 points to win, while the men (2-1, 0-1 Pac-10) came in first with 787 points, breaking a combined eight UA records in the event Thursday through Saturday.
“”Right now, everything is better than we planned it to be, and I think that there’s an excitement now that we got past this Texas meet,”” said senior Adam Ritter, who broke the school record in the 200-yard individual medley event on Thursday.
To begin competition on Friday, the women’s 200y medley relay team of junior Lacey Nymeyer, sophomore Lara Jackson and freshmen Andrea Boritzke and Annie Chandler broke the school record with an automatic qualifying time for the 2007 NCAA Championships of 1:37.92.
Nymeyer had yet another record-breaking performance on Saturday when she broke her own record in the 100y freestyle with a time of 48.29 after she won the 200y freestyle event with a record-breaking time of 1:44.38.
On the men’s team, junior Albert Subirats broke the school record and came in first in the 100y backstroke event with a time of 45.91. He also qualified in the 100y freestyle event.
“”I knew I’d expect big things from guys like Albert and some of the veteran guys,”” Ritter said. “”I knew what to expect from them, and they came through.””
Senior Whitney Myers was also successful, as she automatically qualified in the 200y butterfly on Saturday after qualifying in the 200y freestyle and the 100y backstroke events on the previous day.
Ritter met automatic qualifying times in the 100y and 200y freestyle events.
He also collaborated with junior Darian Townsend, sophomore Nicholas Nilo and freshman Joel Greenshields to qualify in the 400y freestyle relay event.
“”It’s easy for the young guys to be intimidated by the swimming that they see,”” Ritter said. “”For them to come in and make an impact like they did was – it’s huge for our team in terms of (the seniors) we lost last year.””
For the women, both 400y freestyle relay teams met the automatic qualifying times for the event.
For the “”A”” relay team, Nymeyer, Jackson and sophomores Anna Turner and Taylor Baughman finished with a time of 3:16.45, while the “”B”” team of Myers, junior Brandy Collins, sophomore Lindsey Kelly and Boritzke followed with a time of 3:17.85.
Freshman Caitlin Iverson met two automatic qualifying times in the 200y backstroke and the 400y individual medley events.
Six women met automatic qualifying times in an individual event, including junior Jacquelyn Craft and sophomore Kathryn Thompson in the 200y backstroke, Turner and Jackson in the 100y freestyle, freshmen Jenny Forster in the 200y butterfly and Chandler in the 100y breaststroke.
Rounding off the meet for the men was Nilo, who automatically qualified in the 100y freestyle event after he qualified with the 200y medley relay team of juniors Subirats, Townsend and Ivan Barnes on Friday.
“”Things are starting to shape up a little bit (for) our team,”” Ritter said. “”Things are being solidified in terms of what we want to do at the end of the season.””
