Beavers Set Four School Records at Pac 10 Swimming Championships
Feb. 27, 1998
LONG BEACH, Calif. - Oregon State set four women's swimming school records Friday on the second day of the Pacific-10 Conference Championships at Belmont Plaza Pool. Top-ranked Stanford continues to lead the team competition. OSU is in ninth place at the three-day meet, which concludes Saturday.
OSU's records Friday were: Erica Stephens' 4:28.16 in the 400-yard individual medley; Melissa Hsieh's 58.03 seconds in the 100 butterfly; Traci Lamoure's 1:50.91 in the 200 freestyle; and the 800 freestyle relay of Lamoure, Hsieh, Stephens and Heidi Eslinger at 7:37.63. All three individual records came in the morning's preliminaries, and the relay record was set in the evening's finals.
"We definitely stepped up and started to swim to our potential," OSU head coach Mariusz Podkoscielny said. "It's hard when so much of your team is freshmen with no Pac-10 experience. You've got half the 1996 Olympic team here, plus (Olympian) foreigners . it is a little intimidating, but we got that out of the way yesterday. "The future of OSU swimming has spoken."
Stephens' mark beat her own time of 4:34.27 set earlier this season. The freshman eventually placed 16th with a 4:31.86 in the finals; she also reached the finals and placed 14th in the 100 backstroke in 57.74 seconds.
"I was really happy to get back to the finals," Stephens said. "I kind of surprised myself. Ididn't feel good this morning, but I talked with my coaches and figured out what I needed to do - take control of my races and be mentally in there."
Hsieh swam a 58.17 in the finals to finish 23rd. Her preliminary swim bettered the 58.24 set by Lisa van Loben Sels in 1991.
"I'm really happy with it," the freshman said. "I haven't gone this fast in three years (since posting a 57.5 in a high school meet). I didn't know what to expect. It's my first Pac-10 meet and I was nervous, I'm just taking everything as I go. I think this team is going to improve through the years and I'm proud to be part of it."
Lamoure finished in 1:51.04 in the finals and placed 13th. Her mark in the preliminaries edged past her own record of 1:50.92 set earlier this season, but still fell over a second short of her goal of the NCAA automatic qualifying mark.
"I expected more," Lamoure said. "I'm not swimming terrible, but it wasn't what I hoped for. But as a team, we're doing well."
The Beavers gained ground on Washington State in the race for eighth place Friday, and are only 40 points from matching their score in last year's meet after picking up 127 points on Friday.
"We had a great finish with the relay," Podkoscielny said of the 800 freestyle team that placed seventh.. "It was great to see them keep fighting and break the school record. This year, that record fell by over 10 seconds."
In addition to the school records, OSU had seven other swimmers move up the school's all-time top 10 lists in various events on Friday. Hsieh's 1:54.28 in the 200 freestyle moved her from ninth to third on OSU's top 10 and gave her 28th place in the Pac-10; Stephens' 57.74 in the 100 backstroke moved her up to third from fourth; Severance's 4:41.52 in the 400 individual medley kept her in fifth place on OSU's list but improved the time in that spot; Severance's 1:08.87 in the 100 breaststroke put her in seventh place on OSU's list and gave her 24th place in the Pac-10; Rachael Novak's 1:01.42 in the 100 backstroke put her in eighth place on OSU's list and 29th in the Pac-10; Julie Lewis' 1:09.59 in the 100 breaststroke moved her into ninth place on OSU's list and gave her 26th place in the Pac-10; and Jennifer Saunders' 1:57.28 in the 200 freestyle put her in 10th on OSU's list and 35th in the Pac-10.
1998 Pacific-10 Women's Swimming Championships Event Results
TEAM SCORES THROUGH DAY TWO: Stanford 920.5, Southern California 870.5, Arizona 721.5, UCLA 703.5, California 682.0, Arizona State 543.0, Washington 313.5, Washington State 222.5, Oregon State 203.0. Day Two winners and Oregon State finishers
200 MEDLEY RELAY - 1. Stanford (Hyman, Austevoll, Amey, Cropper), 1:41.42; 9. Oregon State (Novak, Severance, Hsieh, Higuera), 1:52.33. 400 INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY - 1. Elli Overton, STAN, 4:11.68; 16. Erica Stephens, OSU, 4:31.86; 32. Sarah Cohen, OSU, 4:47.58; Kristen Severance, OSU, 4:41.52.
100 BUTTERFLY - 1. Misty Hyman, STAN, 53.35; 23. Melissa Hsieh, OSU, 58.17; 28. Arianna Higuera, OSU, 59.54; 31. Kristal Castillo, OSU, 1:00.87; 33. Julie Lewis, OSU, 1:01.34; 34. Jackie Boudreau, OSU, 1:02.33; 35. Larissa Whitney, OSU, 1:03.33.
200 FREESTYLE - 1. Lindsay Farella, UA, 1:47.41; 13. Traci Lamoure, OSU, 1:51.04; 28. Melissa Hsieh, OSU, 1:54.28; 34. Heidi Eslinger, OSU, 1:57.14; 35. Jennifer Saunders, OSU, 1:57.28; Arianna Higuera, OSU, 1:58.25. 100
BREASTSTROKE - 1. Lindsay Etter, UCLA, 1:01.28; 24. Kristen Severance, OSU, 1:08.87; 26. Julie Lewis, OSU, 1:09.59; 28. Sarah Cohen, OSU, 1:11.77; 29. Gina Giesbrecht, OSU, 1:12.68; 30. Christy Winslow, OSU, 1:19.85. 100
BACKSTROKE - 1.Catherine Fox, STAN; 533 3.01; 14. Erica Stephens, OSU, 57.74; 29. Rachael Novak, OSU, 1:01.42; 32. Jill Lowers, OSU, 1:03.77. 800
FREESTYLE RELAY - 1. Stanford (Rose, Hyman, Thies, Fox), 7:12.14; 7. (tie) Oregon State (Lamoure, Hsieh, Stephens, Eslinger), 7:37.63.
