Second place at season opener

FAYETTEVILLE– Arkansas’ swimming and diving team opened the 2010-11 season with a second-place finish and 100 points at the North Texas Relays in Mansfield, Texas on Saturday afternoon, Oct. 8. The Razorbacks were just 18 points behind SMU.The 300 backstroke relay team took the top spot in 2:51.33. Aubrey Hertzler, Dannica Brennan and Haley Smith brought in the first win for the Razorbacks of the day. Veterans Katie Whitbeck and Lisa Lunkenheimer along with newcomer Liz Braun stopped the clock at 2:50.18 for a second-place finish in the 300 butterfly relay. The newest Hogs made a strong showing at their career opening meet. Nicole Menzel, Julia Kucherich along with sophomore Chelsea Franklin earned a first-place finish in the 1500 freestyle relay with a time of 14:48.19. “I was very pleased with our overall performances tonight,” head coach Jeff Poppell said. “We were much faster than we typically are at this time of year which is encouraging. However, we are still making some technical mistakes and errors which need to be corrected as we move though the season.”Franklin, Menzel, sophomore Sigrun Sverrisdottir and junior Jillienne Schilling brought in another top finish for Arkansas. The group stopped the clock in the 800 free relay in 7:29.42. The 400 medley relay group posted a second-place finish by less than one second with a time of 3:52.72. "After practicing this morning at 5:30 a.m. in Fayetteville, the team hit the road for a seven hour bus trip to the relay event. “We went directly to the pool,” Poppell said. “The girls handled adversity very well.”Another second-place finish for the Razorbacks came in the 200 free relay with freshman Carly Mercer racing the anchor porting of the relay with a time of 23.29 seconds. The team finished in 1:36.77.Arkansas is back in the pool Saturday morning for the first duals of the season. The double dual against Tulane and UNT is set for 9 a.m.

Download: north_texas_results.pdf