SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – The University of the Incarnate Word women's swimming and diving team opened their home schedule on Friday night at the Barshop Natatorium and were topped by North Texas, 127-116. (Results)

The women's meet came down to the final race of the night, the 200-yard freestyle relay.  The Mean Green led by two points heading into the race and they came through with a clinching win in 1:36.82.  "It was a very closely contested meet from start to finish, but we let an opportunity pass when we didn't start the meet as strong as we needed to," said UIW head coach Phillip Davis. "I thought we let one slip away tonight."

The Cardinals won six events in the meet.  Adrienne Morrow (Hot Springs, AR/Hot Springs HS) picked up the first win for UIW in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:54.30 while teammate Abby Meyer (Austin/Bowie HS) took third in 1:54.67.  "It seems like every single meet she is winning the 200 freestyle by the skin of her teeth," said Davis.  "I love it and hate it at the same time, but she is showing the exact type of toughness we need out of our seniors."

Senior Lana Nguyen (Kiev, Ukraine/NPD) continued her domination of the sprint freestyle events.  She won her fourth straight 50 freestyle in 23.78 and took the 100 freestyle in 52.39.   Morrow added a third place finish in the 100 freestyle in 53.53.  "Lana is the closest thing to a 24-hour a day athlete as a coach can hope for," said Davis.  "She is never off the clock and is always making conscious efforts to better herself."

The Cardinals swept the 100-yard breaststroke behind strong performances by Celeste Morgen (San Antonio/Johnson HS) and Daria Makieieva (Mariupol, Ukraine/Olimpic Reserve of Sergey Bubka).  Morgen edged out Makieieva in the 1-2 finish, 1:05.64 to 1:05.85.

Finally, the UIW women dominated the diving events.  Senior Kali Lents (San Antonio/Reagan HS) won both the 1-meter and 3-meter events.  She earned 251.85 points in 1-meter while teammate Kim Foster (Spring/Oak Ridge HS) was second with 228.95 points.  In the 3-meter, Lents easily topped the competition with 281.45 points.  "Kali dove extremely well today and I am very proud of Kim Foster for stepping up to take second place," said Davis.  "It was her best meet of the year and we need more from them both."

The UIW women are back in action on November 7 at home against Trinity.
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