Swimming and Diving Meet Notes- North Texas

Up nextThe University of Arkansas (4-1, 2-1 SEC) will kick off the 2010 portion of its schedule with a dual meet against North Texas, Jan. 9 at Arkansas Natatorium at 10 a.m. The Razorbacks are 6-0 all-time against the Mean Green. North Texas has a record of 4-3 in dual meeets this season.

Siow and Totten swim at Southeast Asia GamesArkansas swimmers Yi-Ting Siow and Erica Totten represented their home countries of Malaysia and the Philippines, respectively, at the 10-day, multi-sport event in Laos.

Siow won gold medals in the 200m individual medley and 100m breaststroke while setting Malaysian and Southeast Asia Games records in both events. The senior added a third gold medal in the 200m breakststroke with a personal-record time of 2:30.35.

Totten, representing the Philippines, finished fourth in the 200m and 800m freestyle, narrowly missing the bronze medal in each. The junior posted a career-best time of 2:03.97 in the 200m freestyle, establishing a new Philippine national record.

Razorbacks remain ranked 18th by CSCAAThe Arkansas women’s swimming and diving team remains ranked 18th in the College Swimming Coaches Association of America’s Division I Coaches poll, released Mon., Dec. 15. Georgia is the top ranked women’s team followed by Arizona, Stanford, Texas and California.

Siow qualifies for NCAA ChampionshipsArkansas senior Yi-Ting Siow qualified for the NCAA Championships when she touched in at 2:09.01 in the 200y breaststroke to earn her second event win of the Purdue Invitational. Siow’s time represents the fastest in the NCAA this season by almost two-and-a-half seconds.

Hogs collect 16 NCAA "B" cuts at Purdue InvitationalThe Arkansas swimming and diving team collected NCAA "B" cuts in nine different events over the weekend. Siow swam th e NCAA provisional qualifying times in the 200y and 400y IM as well as the 100y breaststroke. Junior Jamie Marks also picked up multiple "B" cuts in the 500y freestyle, the 1,650y freestyle, 200y butterfly and the 400y IM. Sophomore Katie Whitbeck swam the cut in the 200y buttefly and the 200y freestyle events. Others to make the times included Alison Templin, Jillienne Schilling, Chelsea Franklin, Lisa Lunkenheimer and Leah Pierce.

Last time outIn team standings at the Purdue Invitational, the Razorbacks finished the weekend in third place with 680 points. Michigan took first place with a total of 774.5 points followed by Louisville in second with 739.5 points. Purdue, Ohio State and Missouri State rounded out the top six.

In Poppell’s Words… (On the Purdue Invitational)"This meet represents the exact halfway point of our season so it gives us an idea of where we are at and what we have to do is improve off of it. We have put a lot of work in to get where to we are now and we have to do more work to be even better when we get to the SEC Championships."

Two school records fall at Purdue InvitationalThe Arkasnas school record in the 400y medley relay fell and sophomore Katie Whitbeck broke the school record in the 100y butterfly.

Whitbeck touched in at 54.80 in the 100y butterfly event to set the new school record and a new career best time. The previous record was 55.05 by Katie Kastes at the Hoosierland Open in 2007.

The 400y medley relay team of Lynette Ng, Yi-Ting Siow, Lisa Lunkenheimer and Katie Whitbeck swam a NCAA "B" cut time of 3:42.69 to break the previous school record of 3:43.65 set last season at the Southeastern Conference Championships.