@UNCOSwim_Dive Continue Outings at Invites

11/20/2015 8:08:00 PM | Women's Swimming & Diving

The divers began their three-day Wildcat Invite, while the swimmers competed in day two of the Phill Hansel Invite

GREELEY, Colo. - The Northern Colorado swimmers and divers competed on Friday, with the swimmers moving to day two of the Phill Hansel Invite in Houston, Texas, and the divers opening up competition at the Wildcat Invite in Tucson, Arizona. The swimmers stayed in 10th place with their day-end score of 183, and the divers had one 3M finals round advancement.

"I am content with how the girls swam today," head coach Kelly McClanahan said. "We didn't have as many faster night swims as we did yesterday, but it is very difficult to do that the shorter the event becomes. This was a long day for us, but we have an even longer one tomorrow. At this point in the weekend it becomes mind over matter to finish the third day in a big way. I know the girls have more fast swims left in them, so I am excited to see what tomorrow holds for us."

Laura Ramirez picked up points for the Bears in the 100 yard butterfly, finishing third in the third heat in 56.92, three hundredths of a second faster than her preliminary round time. Ramirez also swam in the 400 IM, touching the wall nearly three seconds faster in the finals round than she did in prelims, at 4:33.81 for the fastest time in the fourth heat.

Sydney Kovar also earned points of the UNC squad, this time in the 200 yard freestyle race, heat number two. Kovar touched the wall at 1:52.52, sixth overall in the heat.

Valeria Mihhailova earned a spot in the first heat of the finals round of the 100 yard backstroke, and would end up posting a time of 56.04 for a seventh place finish overall. Elle Gawronska earned a time of 57.84 in the same race, swimming in the third heat of the event.

"Our evening 200 frees really made a break for it tonight; Karlie set a PR by 1.3 seconds, and Jenny set a new PR by .41. Sydney Kimura, being very conservative on the front end of her race, managed to be strong on the back half and drop 2.1 seconds from the morning time and Sydney Kovar fixed the trouble 50 she has in her race. Elle actually swam pretty close to her conference time from last year in the morning. Val had a great 56.00 in the morning, with a slow start, and added .04 seconds in the evening after a quicker start but missed turns."

In the 200 yard medley relay, the UNC team of Gawronska, Tara Olson, Kim Kuni, and Karlie O'Connell finished with a combined time of 1:49.64 (exhibition).

"Our 'A' 200 MR DQ'ed due to an early exchange, too. I told the girls upfront that this is the time to work on those aggressive exchanges, and we will use this as an opportunity to work on the exchanges more in practice."

The 800 yard freestyle relay team of Carleigh Barrett, O'Connell, Sydney Kimura, and Kovar put up a 10th place finishing time of 7:43.30 for the Bears.

"We didn't end the night that way I had hoped. The 800 FR has always been our strongest relay, historically, and in the end I know those four girls will put together a tremendous relay come conference."

The divers competed on the 3M today at the Arizona-hosted Wildcat Invite, with Taylor Walsh earning an 11th place finish with 242.10 in the preliminary round in the morning to advance to the consolation round later in the day.

Walsh posted a higher score in her finals run of dives, jumping to an even 249 points for first place in consolations.

"Taylor had an awesome competition," diving coach Chelsea Popplewell noted. "Not everything was exactly how she wanted it but she fought her way into the consolation final and then won it and ended up 10th out of 41 girls (one girls was unattached exhibition so Taylor was 9th out of 40 NCAA eligible divers)."

Haley Schneider and Savanna Meadows also competed on 3M, earning scores of 203.25 and 210.55, respectively.

"Today was a really good experience for the girls. They're in a whole new atmosphere: they're diving outside and against some really good competition. For the most part the girls are doing a really good job with that adversity. This was also a really good test against conference teams and I think we have fared pretty well so far."

Action continues right away for the team on Saturday, as the swimmers conclude their three-day stint in Houston and the divers move on to the second day of the Wildcat Invite.

For more information on the Bears this season, check out UNCBears.com, visit the official Facebook page, or follow them on Twitter at @UNCOSwim_Dive.