HOUSTON, TEXAS – The University of the Incarnate Word women's swimming & diving team open their season with a pair of dual meets this weekend at Rice on Friday at 5 p.m. and at University of Houston on Saturday at 11 a.m.
Under the direction of ninth-year head coach Phil Davis, the Cardinals are making entering their second year as a member of NCAA Division I and the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association. These are the first of six dual meets that lead up to the Texas Invitational in December.
The Cardinals lost a number of quality seniors from last year and will have to fill the distance and backstroke events, but they have gained depth with a number of strong freshmen. The strength of the team is in diving where
Kali Lents (San Antonio/Reagan HS) leads a talented group that includes Kim Foster (Spring/Oak Ridge HS) and
Mallory Draper (Victoria/Victoria West HS). Lents was the CCSA Swimmer of the Year and Swimmer of the Meet in 2013-14.
In the swimming events, seniors
Celeste Morgen (San Antonio/Johnson HS),
Adrienne Morrow (Hot Springs, AR/Hot Springs HS) and
Lana Nguyen (Kiev, Ukraine/NPD) will be expected to lead the team. Morgen and Morrow are both excellent breaststrokers with Morrow adding strength to the freestyle events. Nguyen is a top-notch sprint freestyler who finished second in the CCSA in the 50-yard freestyle last year and could threaten the school record in the event this year.
Rice should be a strong team to face for the Cardinals after finishing up 2013-14 as the 46
th ranked team in the country according to
www.collegeswimming.com. They have won the last two Conference USA titles and three in the last four years. They return three individual conference champions in Casey Clark, Erin Flanigan and Cora McKenzie.
The Cardinals and Cougars are meeting for the fourth time in the program's history. The Cougars have won all three previous meetings, including last year at the Barshop Natatorium, 166-120.
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