Sports
 

UH faces Kansas at CRWC

by Stuart H. Clements
The Daily Cougar

After a 13-day hiatus for the Thanksgiving holiday, the Houston swimming and diving team returns to the Campus Recreational and Wellness Center Natatorium today to face Kansas in the Cougars' last dual meet of 2003.

The Cougars enter the contest after capturing second place in the UH Fall Invitational Nov. 20-22 behind Tennessee, one of the strongest teams in the Southeastern Conference ­ a conference known for perennial excellence in the water.

Houston's record in dual meets is 4-3, including two victories over Conference USA foes Louisville and one win against Cincinnati, seating the Cougars at the top of the league, undefeated.

Houston has seen tremendous results from many of its 13 freshmen, including stellar performances from swimmers Szintia Szanto and Haley Menard and diver Anna Kiess.

Szanto, a native of Budapest, Hungary, has already written herself into the UH record book. She holds the second-fastest time in UH history for the 200-yard butterfly, finishing in 2 minutes, 1.83 seconds Nov 22.

Szanto also holds the fourth fastest time in Cougar history for her Oct. 17 performance in the 200-yard individual medley against Texas, which she completed in 2 minutes, 6.52 seconds, four seconds faster than the day's second place finisher.

Menard proved useful in C-USA meets this season, when she earned two first-place finishes against Cincinnati and Louisville in the 100-yard and 200-yard freestyle events Nov. 1 in Cincinnati, Ohio.

On the diving side, Kiess and teammate sophomore Azul Almazan continue to dominate the competition.

Most recently, the diving duo took the two top spots in platform diving at the UH Fall Invitational -- Almazan finished first, scoring 468.15 points, and Kiess finished behind her with 447.90 points.

Almazan has already earned honors as C-USA Diver of the Week twice this season.

The Cougars have obviously shown tremendous improvement since the 2002-03 season, but the Jayhawks will be tougher to pluck than your average holiday bird.

Swimming in the Big 12 Conference, the Jayhawks rival teams like Texas and Texas A&M on a day-to-day basis; programs that find themselves listed in national rankings.

In Kansas' last appearance Nov. 21-23 at the Minnesota Invitational in Minneapolis, Minn., five swimmers swam fast enough to garner national top 50 rankings, as well as having four Jayhawk relays ranked in the top 20 nationally.

Among the ranked individual swimmers were senior Whitney Sondall and junior Amy Gruber. Sondall earned No. 12 in the nation in the 100-yard backstroke, finishing in 55.52 seconds.

Gruber earned top 50 times for three events. She ranks No. 27 in the 50-yard freestyle (23.35), No. 26 in the 100-yard freestyle (50.63) and No. 19 in the 100-yard butterfly (55.11).

Houston returns to action after the holiday break on Jan. 10 in Miami, Fla., to face Florida International and Miami. Until then, the Cougars hope they fill up on too much turkey and saved room for the rare delicacy of Jayhawk.

 Send comments to dcsports@mail.uh.edu