Privateers Close Day One of Rice Aquatic Invite

Darkness brought an abruptend to the first day of the inaugural Rice Aquatic Center Invitational two events early on Friday afternoon, but it was enough for the University of New Orleans swimming and diving to get in the driver's seat in duals against Incarnate Word.

At the end of the first day of a two day dual, the UNO men lead UIW 84.5-46.5 with the women commanding a 93-38 edge. The Privateer women are also competing against host Rice, who they trail 104-27.

On the men's side, UNO claimed 5 of 7 events against the Cardinals.

Freshman Phillip Graeter posted season best marks for the squad in winning the 400 IM (4:01.83) and finishing second in the 200 back (1:53.97). Graeter topped his own 1:55.97 in the 200 back with his time in the 400 IM ranking second all-time to Ben Solari's 3:59.97 from last year's Sun Belt Conference meet.

Other individual event winners included Ash Dougan, Birkir Mar Jonsson and Solari. Dougan paced a 1-2 finish in the 100 free with Ryan Moss while Jonsson placed first in the 100 fly with the fastest Privateer time on the year, a 51.72 result.

Solari rounded out the winners with a 2:09.27 time that edged out six other swimmers in the 200 breast.

The 400 medley relay team of Nicklas Kunst, Jonsson, Mark Schindler and Ash Dougan was also victorious, taking the event by a second and a half over a squad from UIW.

Each of the UNO wins for the men represented a pool record as this was the first meet at the recently opened Rice Aquatic Center.

Rice claimed all seven events in the women's competition.

Catalina Mendieta finished second in the 100 fly with a time of 59.38, posting the first sub-1:00 result in the event this year for a UNO swimmer. Haydn Maclean had a team-best of her own, touching the wall third in a time of 2:08.41 in the 200 back, besting her 2:08.73 from the Oct. 3 dual at Tulane.

Other notable performances included Joanna Wozniak in the 500 free (5:08.90) and Maclean in the 100 fly (1:00.33)

The teams will contest the delayed 200 free relay events with the remainder of the original Saturday meet schedule, which is scheduled for an 11 a.m. start.

Diving results were not available as of presstime.

Team Scores (through 14 events)
UNO men 84.5, Incarnate Word 46.5
UNO women 93, Incarnate Word 38
Rice women 104, UNO 27