Payne and Rospierski Lead the Way for `Hawks on Day 2 of Mizzou Invite
Dec. 3, 2011
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Senior captain Stephanie Payne had the lone first place finish for Kansas, while junior Brittany Rospierski had strong showing in two events as the Jayhawks closed out the second day of competition in the Mizzou Invite.
Payne’s fastest finish came in the 400 IM, where she swam to a time of 4:18.44, which was more than second a slower than her preliminary time. Rospierski was the highest placing Kansas swimmer in the 100 breaststroke with her 1:03.41 time. She also swam the second leg of the 200 medley relay team which was awarded sixth place overall.
“I was really happy with Brittany Rospierski today,” said KU head coach Clark Campbell. “She was really close to her lifetime best in the 100 breast (1:03.97) and was in the consolation finals, so that was a big swim for her.”
Despite Rospierski and Payne’s performances, Campbell could not help but feel like his team had a bit of a let-down following Thursday’s strong performance.
“I thought today was a tale of two sessions,” Campbell explained. “The first session we swam really well off the momentum we created on Thursday, but tonight’s final session I feel we took a step back.”
Campbell came to that conclusion after seeing one of his most seasoned swimmers stumble later on in the meet.
“Stephanie Payne won the 400 IM, but I think she was too anxious to perform at a high level during finals and I am sure looking back, Steph would change some of things she did preparation wise, leading up to the actual race,” he said. “But overall, I don’t think we came out with the right mindset or intensity for peak performance tonight. Perhaps we were expecting it to be easy, because we did not do the right things in our preparation before, after and in between events.”
There were some definite bright spots in the bunch on Friday, besides Payne and Rospierski’s performances. Senior captain Shannon Garlie was the highest placing Jayhawk in the 200 free with her 1:49.93 time and fellow senior Abigail Anderson finished third overall in the 100 back (54.31).
“I also thought Alison Lusk had a pretty good morning and got back up to where she normally is,” Campbell said. “But she was a little off tonight.”
Lusk would swim to a 1:04.29 time in preliminaries, but would finish 14th overall in the night session with a 1:04.36 time. Sophomore Morgan Sharp also followed up her breakout performance yesterday with an 11th place finish in the 200 free (1:50.26), a little more than a second off her personal best.
“We had some really solid morning swims, which set us up for a good opportunity at night but we just fell flat,” Campbell explained after day two of competition. “Hopefully we live and learn from this and use tomorrow as a chance to prove ourselves as a tough team. That is kind of the key to championship meets. You are going to have ups and downs, but it is the tough teams who come up after they have been down.”
On the boards, junior Christy Cash placed sixth for the second straight night, this time in the one meter dive, with her 237.80 score. Sophomore Alyssa Golden finished in 11th place, tallying 223.45 points during preliminaries, which was only six points less than the last finals qualifier.
Campbell and his squad will have that chance to get back to their peak performances, Saturday as there will be five individual events and one relay taking place at the Mizzou Aquatic Center.
Follow the meet by tracking results as they happen here: http://www.mutigers.com/livestats/c-swim/mizzouinvite11
Log onto kuathletics.com for all the final results, recaps and interviews.
Day #2 RESULTS: 200 Medley Relay 
/ 200 Free / 100 Back / 100 Breast / 400 IM / 800 Free Relay / One Meter Dive
