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Sports

UH to host conference championship tournament

by JONG LEE
The Daily Cougar

The Cougars will compete in the Conference USA Championships, which start Wednesday and end Sunday at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center Natatorium. The meet will begin 1 p.m. Wednesday with the 1-meter men's diving preliminaries. 

"Well, we're really excited," head coach Mark Taylor said. "This is what we've been working for all year long. We've been training since early September to perform at this meet, hopefully with all best times, and the young ladies have been working extremely hard. I think our divers are going to do fabulous, and I think our swimmers are going to do better than they have ever done."

The Cougars have had a long layoff since their last meet. Houston's last meet came on Jan. 28 against Tulane, which they won 139-115. Tulane came into the season as the defending C-USA Champions, and though Tulane has had a rough year, the Cougars are not looking past them once the competition begins.

"You can't ever overlook anyone, especially at the championship meet, because they're coming in to do their peak performances," Taylor said. "I think Tulane has had a rough year, and they are the defending champions, but it's not the same conference as last year."

Southern Methodist University, Rice and Marshall come into the season as new members of Conference USA and look to surprise. SMU has been one of the best squads in the nation for the last couple of years. All three teams will compete in their first ever C-USA Championships.

"Rice, Marshall and SMU are the best people we could hope to get into our conference," Taylor said. "Rice is a cross-town rival and they're always tough and they always have outstanding athletes. SMU is one of the top teams in the country. They're probably going to battle for a top-three or -four finish this year."

Individually, the Cougars had above-average outings this season. Junior Szintia Szanto set school records, freshman Andrea Pa'lmai already has qualified for the NCAAs, and sophomore Tania Cagnotto was one of Houston's top divers.

"I expect all of our girls to go out there, fight and do best times," Taylor said. "I think all of them are ready to do that. They've all worked really hard this year, probably the hardest bunch of working girls we've had since I've been here." I think they're going to have outstanding performances. All of the girls look sharp. We're looking to get faster for NCAA qualifying times."

This will be the third straight year Houston will host the C-USA Championships. The mark makes the Cougars the only school to host the meet at an on-site campus facility. 

"(It's) a big hassle," Taylor said. "We have to get all of our people to donate time and effort to run this meet. We have the best officials around and the person that's our meet director, Linda Breenke, … is probably one of the most qualified people I've ever met in my career. It's really hard because we find ourselves really torn from running the competition and trying to concentrate on performing."

The officials for the meet are putting together a great event and contributing a lot of time. The Cougars are at an advantage with the meet in Houston, getting to sleep in their own beds.

"It's always an advantage being able to sleep in your own bed and not a hotel," Taylor said. "We're having all of our meals catered for the girls this year so that we can make sure that they are eating real, good, quality foods. So I think that the advantage is our pool, our turf, and we know how things go and how things are going to go."

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