DU Starts Strongly At SBC Championships

(above) The University of Denver are heavy favorites to win the SBC Swimming & Diving Championships this week

From: DU Athletics Website

The University of Denver started off strongly at the Sunbelt Conference Swimming & Diving Championships on Wednesday. In the first session, the Crimson and Gold scored gold in the final two events of the night.

DU is looking to defend its sweep of the conference championships from a season ago as the Pioneers compete in their last SBC Championships as a member of the league. In 2011, DU won it’s first-ever women’s team title while the men claimed their second overall team title and first since 2009. 

"Closing the evening with two wins is always a great way to leave the building," head swim coach Brian Schrader said. "I thought our women's 800 Free Relay was great. To break a conference and school record on the first night of the meet was fun. Our men's 800 Free Relay led start to finish and Clay Myers' lead-off effort was outstanding."

The Pioneers' 800 Freestyle Relay team of freshman Anna Labozan, junior Rachel Burns, freshmen Bridgette McNally and Drew Matthews finished over two seconds faster than second-place Florida Atlantic with a time of 7:16.10. Labozan's lead leg of 1:48.76 set the tone for DU, on their way to collecting a new SBC record previously set by DU in 2009.

Not to be outdone, the men's 800 Freestyle Relay team matched their counterpart's results. Senior Clayton Myers paced the team with a lead leg of 1:36.67. Junior Jorge Palma, senior Jay Giddens and junior Cole Worsley kept up the pace helping the team to a time of 6:30.04.

The Pioneer men currently sit tied atop the team standings with 74 points. The women recorded 101 points on the night, placing them in second after the night's events.

"I thought our sprint relays were good, and I'm definitely happy to be just off of our school records in those events," Schrader commented. "Kyle and Bailey both did a great job with their lead legs. I'm really excited to see what the whole team brings in the preliminaries tomorrow. All of our relays hit NCAA standards and that is always the goal."

1 comment:

dggoddard said...

After 12 events, Western Kentucky leads by 33 points.

Check Live Results link for updates.