Swimming Stands Fifth After C-USA Championship's Day One
February 18, 2002 | Swimming & Diving
Feb. 18, 2002
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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- After the first day of competition at the inaugural C-USA Swimming Championships, both the University of Louisville men and women's stand in fifth place.
The women's championship is the first ever for Conference USA led by Cincinnati (222) and followed by ECU (209), Houston (159), TCU (157), Louisville (104) and Saint Louis (86) after the first day's events at the IUPUI Natatorium in Indianapolis. The men are swimming an open meet with just five C-USA schools sponsoring men's swimming. TCU (306) leads and is followed by ECU (234), Cincinnati (170), Saint Louis (89) and Louisville (84).
The Cardinal divers have continued their tradition of finishing a season strong, when the men's Sean Wilkinson placed first in the 3-meter diving with a score of 549.7-0, beating the runnerup by 67 points.
"We have come to take Sean's ability to produce points for us at meets almost for granted, that is how good he is," said Rick Hill, men's head coach. "Each year he proves how focused and talented he is by putting together a great final outing."
Women's diver Katie Collins had her best outing of the season, with a second place finish behind last year's national 1-meter champion, Yulia Pakhalina from Houston.
"Katie was phenomenal in the 1-meter," said women's head coach Sonya Porter. "She showed amazing poise amongst some sizzling competition."
Stephanie Tucker set a school record in the 200-IM with a time of 2:07.92, but placed 8th in the finals. The men's 400-Medley Relay team of Ryan Eatherly, James Winchester, Nils Lofgren and Jacob Grieb finished fourth.
"Traditionally, we have been strong in the relays," said Hill.
Swimming resumes Monday morning at 10 a.m.
