Swim team wins Zippy Invite

December 2, 2012 | News, UToday
By Derrick Blyberg



The women’s swimming and diving team captured first place at the Akron Zippy Invitational Sunday afternoon at Ocasek Natatorium.

Junior Christina Noens set a new meet and school record in the 200-yard backstroke at the Zippy Invitational.

The Rockets dominated all weekend and beat the other nine teams with three first-place finishes during the final day of racing. UT also had a meet-best 21 top-five finishes over the weekend, while earning a grand total of 1,697 points.

“Our ladies did a great job competing this weekend,” UT Head Coach Chris Peters said. “I was really proud of their effort the last three days. It was a very solid way to wrap up the 2012 competition schedule.”

Junior Christina Noens and sophomore Maria Bargardi each had NCAA “B+” cuts in the 200-yard backstroke. The pair of Rockets finished first and second with times of 1:57.71 and 1:58.81, respectively. Noens also set a meet record and beat Bargardi’s team record of 1:58.03 from last year.

After racing to her first collegiate win Saturday, Meredith Gibbon finished with a sweep of the breaststroke events with a first-place time of 2:18.56 in the 200. The junior already had won the 100-yard event with a mark of 1:04.10.

The third top overall finish of the day came from junior Beth Rogers in one of her strongest events. Rogers took the 200-yard butterfly at 2:02.28, beating out the second-place swimmer by more than two seconds (2:04.48).

Senior Carly Harter finished third in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 51.34, and sophomore Melissa Auckley was third in the 200-breaststroke at 2:21.75.

Mid-American Conference rival Ohio was the runner-up with 1,211 points.

The Rockets (1-1) will hit the pool Jan. 11 at Michigan State.

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