Nov. 8, 2005
SAN DIEGO -
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SDSU Swimmers and Divers Head To the Beehive State
The San Diego State swimming and diving team heads to Utah this weekend for a pair of dual meets against Mountain West Conference foes Utah and Brigham Young. The Aztecs (0-1, 0-1 MWC) will compete against the Utes (1-1, 0-0 MWC) at 4 p.m. Friday and will take on the Cougars (0-0, 0-0 MWC) at noon Saturday.
Last Meet With the Aztecs
Sophomore Diana MacManus earned a third-place finish in the 100 backstroke and took seventh in the 200 back to lead the San Diego State swimming team to a sixth-place finish at the Pacific Tiger Invitational on Oct. 28-29 in Stockton, Calif.
USC won the eight-team meet with 796 points, followed by Pacific (533 points), Denver (383.5), BYU (364), Washington State (231.5) and the Aztecs (214.5). Nevada (203) and UC Davis (97.5) ended up seventh and eighth, respectively.
MacManus, a transfer from University of Texas, posted times of 59.12 seconds in the 100 back and 2:09.07 in the 200 back. She also teamed with senior Samantha Peters, and juniors Rachel Rife and Kimberlee Frith for a seventh-place finish in the 200 free relay (1:42.49).
Frith shined individually as well, placing sixth in the 50 free (24.68) and 14th in the 200 free with a season-best time of 1:55.32. She also anchored the 800 free relay to a time of 7:57.12, good for fifth place.
Junior Stella Karoly picked up a pair of top 10 finishes, swimming the 200 butterfly in 2:10.38 (ninth place) and 100 fly in 59.14 (10th place), while Rife had two season-best times, including a ninth-place finish in the 500 free (5:03.69).
SDSU and Utah Series History
The Aztecs and Utes are meeting for the fifth time in the last six years. SDSU's last victory over Utah came in the 1999-00 season, a 133-95 triumph in San Diego. That victory was the Aztecs' second straight win and they followed that up with an impressive showing at the UC Irvine Invitational. SDSU then went on to win three of its last five meets to close the season with a 7-7 record.
A year ago, the Aztecs dropped a 134-104 decision to the Utes at the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center. SDSU won a total of four events on the day, led by then sophomore Emily Parker in the 500-yard free, narrowly beating Utah's Loren Sweny with a time of 5:06.09. The Aztecs' 400 freestyle relay team, paced by current seniors Samantha Peters and Emily Schmied, closed the day with a first-place time of 3:39.28.
SDSU and BYU Series History
The Aztecs have lost four consecutive meets in a row to the Cougars, including a 144-94 loss at RJCCC. In those three meets, San Diego State has given up an average of more than 150 points, while only scoring an average of just over 105.
However, the Aztecs were coming off a three-day road trip last year when they welcomed BYU to the RJCCC. Parker led SDSU with a victory in the 1,000-yard free in 10:34.762, some eight seconds in front of the Cougars' Shannon Bloom (10:42.60). Three others - Stella Karoly (59.25 - 100 fly), Katie Smith (1:01.20 - 100 back) and Joelle Felton (234.37 - one-meter diving) - recorded team season-best marks.
Do I Know You?
Don't be surprised if it takes awhile for the Aztec swimming and diving team to get to know one another. After all, 52.3 percent of the team (11-of-21) are either freshmen or transfers. The 2005-06 squad features seven freshmen and four college transfers.
The freshmen include Megan Flanagan (Oakdale, Minn.), Sasha Goodman (Long Beach, Calif.), Katie Leahy, Lizette Patterson (Saugus, Calif.), Emily Pool (San Diego), Rosalie Raymond (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Kendall Twilling (Sacramento, Calif.). Twin sisters Rachel and Rebekah Rife (Clayton, Calif.) are both junior transfers from Sierra College, while junior Kimberlee Frith (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.) (Orange Coast College) and sophomore Diana MacManus (San Diego) (University of Texas) are also in their first season on The Mesa.
Four freshmen - Patterson, Pool, Raymond and Twilling - have posted top SDSU times in five events through the first two meets. Those events were the 200 breast (Patterson), 100 breast (Pool), 1,650 free (Raymond) and the 100 free and 200 IM (Twilling). Frith (50 and 200 free), MacManus (100 and 200 back) and Rachel Rife (500 free) have team-best times in their respective events, giving the Aztecs' newcomers top times in 10 of the 14 swimming events contested so far, a remarkable 71.4 pecent. SDSU underclassmen (freshmen and sophomores) have best marks in 56.3 percent of the events (9-of-16) when including sophomore Kathleen Heuring's top marks in both the 1- and 3-meter dives.