Northern Colorado Swimming Closes Out Phill Hansel Invite

Thursday, November 19

Houston, Texas

ALL DAY

University of Northern Colorado

Phill Hansel Invite

11/21/2015 3:53:00 PM | Women's Swimming & Diving

The Bear swimmers finished 10th overall, and the divers continued their run at the Wildcat Invite

Phill Hansel Invite Day One Recap
Phill Hansel Invite Day Two/Wildcat Invite Day One Recap

Phill Hansel Invite Full Results [Prelims and Finals]

GREELEY, Colo. - UNC Swimming & Diving continued their outings at their respective Invites on Saturday, with the swimmers closing out their run at the Phill Hansel Invite, and the divers continuing their slate at the Wildcat Open.

The swimmers finished 10th overall at the Houston-hosted Phill Hansel Invite, earning 238 team points.

In the final day of competition, the UNC swimmers made waves, setting season records left and right. All of the individual swimmers set season-best times in the preliminary round of their events, with four girls cutting their time even further in the finals round.

The first event of the day was the 1650 yard freestyle, in which Carleigh Barrett competed for the first time this season. Her time of 17:09.54 putting her in the top-13 of all of the race participants.

Sydney Kovar moved into the eighth-place spot in the UNC All-Time records for the 1650 free, posting a season best time of 17:23.93. Kovar also picked up a season best in the 100 yard freestyle, touching the wall at 53.04 in the prelims run.

Jenny Brown also slid into the top-10 All-Time records with her 17:28.56 run in the race. This was also her best time this season.

The fourth UNC swimmer in the 1650 free was Lexi Peterson, who recorded a season best time of 18:07.83. ?In the 200 fly, Peterson picked up a preliminary time that will replace her season best, notching 2:10.99 in the race.

In the 200 yard backstroke, Elle Gawronska picked up a preliminary time (and season best) of 2:04.55 to place her in the third heat of the finals round. Her finals time of 2:05.06 landed her 21st place overall in the event, and fifth in her heat. Her prelims time earns her a sixth place spot in the All-Time Top 10 Athletes of the event.

Valeria Mihhailova earned a season best time of 52.26 in the prelims of the 100 yard freestyle, placing her in the third heat of finals as well. Her finals time was even faster than prelims, making her season best a 52.12 in the event. Her time moved her into seventh place in the program of All-Time, times in the 100 free.

In the 200 yard breaststroke, Courtney Chrzas scored points for the Bears, picking up her season best time of 2:23.16, advancing her to the finals in the third heat. Her finals time puts her at the ninth All-Time time in the event.

Laura Ramirez had a standout day in the 200 yard butterfly, touching the wall at 2:05.48 in prelims for a spot in heat numer two of finals. In the finals round, however, she set an even faster season best by nearly two seconds, stopping the clock at 2:03.85. While she already sits in third place All-Time in the program, her finals time will replace a 2014 best that landed her the third place ranking, besting it by nearly half a second.

Sydney Kimura also set a season best in the 200 yard backstroke with a 2:08.68 time in the finals. Tara Olson put up a time of 2:27.13 in the finals of 200 yard breaststroke - her best so far of the season as well.

Three of the UNC divers continued their competition at the Wildcat Invite, taking on their 1M dive lists. Savanna Meadows finished sixth overall for the Bears, scoring 263.50 in the finals. Meadows advanced to the finals after earning a season-high score of 282.30 in the preliminary round.

"Day two is always the hardest at these big invitationals and I think the girls felt that a little bit," diving coach Chelsea Popplewell said. "Savanna had a much better performance today finishing third in the preliminaries [to advance to the finals] after setting a season best score by 12 points. In finals, she fixed what she messed up on in prelims but missed the things she hit in prelims. That's definitely something that we noticed and need to work on with all of the girls."

Haley Schneider and Taylor Walsh also competed on the 1M, earning scores of 205.55 and 216.40 in the prelims, respectively.

"Tomorrow will be a fun day. It will be the first time this season that they are able to compete tower so it's going to be a good test of where they are with that event. It's a lot of fun and a very different event so I'm excited to see what they can do."

The swimmers will take a two week break before returning to the pool on Dec. 4-5 for the Omaha Invite in Omaha, Nebraska. The divers will close out their competition at the Wildcat Invite on Sunday before their break prior to the Omaha Invite. The Omaha Invite will close out the 2015 schedule for the UNC Swimming & Diving team, giving them almost a month off before returning to meet competition on January 15th.