Kansas Swimming and Diving Defeated, 150.5-149.5, by Arkansas in Nail-Biter

Nov. 1, 2007

Kansas vs. Arkansas in PDF Format

LAWRENCE, Kan. – In another battle of close races, junior Maria Mayrovich raced her way to a Robinson Natatorium record in the 100-yard freestyle (50.25) as the Jayhawks lost a close competition, 150.5-149.5, to the Arkansas Lady Razorbacks Thursday evening.<?xml:namespace prefix=”o” ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office”?>

Following a first-place tie in the three-meter diving competition between KU’s freshman, Erin Mertz, and Arkansas’ Madison Palmer (both 266.70), Kansas sat one point ahead of the Razorbacks, 132.5-131.5, the winner of the meet to be determined by the last two races, the 400-yard IM and 800-yard freestyle relay.

<?xml:namespace prefix=”st1″ ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags”?>Arkansas swimmers Jamie Marks and Erica Totten took the lead, finishing first and second, respectively in the 400-yard IM. Freshman Joy Bunting finished third for Kansas (4:31.58), while junior co-captain Danielle Herrmann finished fifth (4:32.73) and sophomore Carrah Haley clocked in at 4:35.83, a sixth-place finish.

Entering the last event of the meet, the 800-yard freestyle relay, Kansas needed first and second-place finishes to seal a victory. The relay team of Emily Lanteigne, Terri Schramka, Ashley Robinson and Maria Mayrovich took the lead, quickly finishing first with a time of 7:30.66, however, Arkansas’ second-place finish finalized the Lady Razorback victory.

“It was a great meet,” head coach Clark Campbell said. “If you start picking over the details, you will drive yourself silly. We swam way better than last week when we had a small letdown (against Missouri). We can only control what we control; we can’t control how fast anyone else swims. Anytime you can swim a BCS-type school, it’s important to do. It’s nice to have a SEC school so close and not on a coast. As for Maria (Mayrovich), on behalf of the coaching staff and team, we are extremely excited to see what happens with her towards the end of the season.”

In addition to the 800-yard freestyle relay victory and the first-place 100-yard freestyle race and pool record, Mayrovich recorded another victory as a member of the winning 200-yard medley relay (1:44.90), alongside senior co-captain Lauren Bonfe, Herrmann and junior Ashley Leidigh as well as the 50-yard free (23.44).

Lanteigne had a standout meet in sprint free action for the `Hawks, finishing second in the 200-yard free for Kansas (1:51.59), and was barely out-touched by Arkansas’ Katie Kastes, who won the race with a time of 1:51.28. Additionally, Lanteigne racked another second-place finish in the 100-yard free behind Mayrovich with a time of 52.65.

Battling a night of close races for KU was sophomore Alicia Casillas, who was barely topped in the 1650-yard free (16:51.88) by Arkansas’ Stephanie Carr (16:50.10). The duo battled again in the 500-yard free in another close showdown, where Casillas additionally placed second (4:56.50) behind Carr (4:55.95).

Bunting finished strong on the evening with a second-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:05.57), almost topping the victorious Herrmann, who finished with a time of 1:05.28. Bunting also finished third in the 200-yard breast (2:23.64) in addition to her third-place 400-IM finish.

In diving action, the rare first-place tie in the three-meter competition (266.70) gave Mertz of KU and Palmer of Arkansas six-and-a-half points each. Meghan Proehl (240.82) and Jenny Roberts (235.80) finished third and fourth, respectively.

On the one-meter board, Mertz finished second (269.55), while Roberts and Hannah McMacken finished third and fourth, respectively. Sophomore Allison Ho placed seventh, while freshman Chelsea Hartling rounded out the Jayhawk competition with an eighth-place finish.

“I am very proud of our performance tonight,” diving coach Eric Elliott said. “We performed well, we just need to keep going and focus on our goal at the end of the year. These meets are measurement sticks of our progress. In competition, you can’t control the judges, you simply have to focus on your dives and do what you have been working on. At the end of the season when you have five to seven judges, all of the scores even out. We are where we should be for this point in the season. We have a good mix of talented freshmen and senior leadership. This group has each other’s backs, they have chemistry and I’m excited for the end of the season.”

Kansas will next be in action Saturday, Nov. 3, when it hosts the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks at 10 a.m. in Robinson Natatorium on the KU campus.

-KU-