Swimming & Diving to Hold Red-White Meet on Wednesday

10/3/2006 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving

Oct. 3, 2006

HOUSTON - The University of Houston Swimming & Diving team takes its first step toward the 2006-07 season when it plays host to the annual Red & White Meet at 3 p.m., Wednesday at the Campus Recreation & Wellness Center Natatorium on the UH campus.

The team will compete in a variety of non-standard events to help break the daily grind of practice and give the student-athletes a dual-meet-like environment.

"This is more for fun and for the team to get used to the way that things are done in a college meet," said head coach Mark Taylor, who enters his fifth season at the helm of the program. "It's also a little bit of a rivalry and a bonding exercise."

The meet schedule includes off-distance events like the 250-yard medley relay, 800-yard freestyle, 125-yard freestyle, 100-yard individual medley, 25-yard freestyle, 500-yard freestyle relay, 75-yard butterfly, freestyle and backstroke events, 350-yard freestyle, 75-yard breaststroke, 300-yard individual medley and 300-yard freestyle relay.

"We're extremely excited about the start of our season," Taylor said. "Our freshmen have come in and tried to find a place on the team."

The Cougars were divided into Red and White teams with senior diving captain Rachel Gitelson and senior swimming captain Szintia Szanto leading each group. Gitelson's team includes senior Alejandra Salazar, juniors Anastasia Pozdniakova and Nicole Vaiana, sophomores Andrea Pa'lmai, Sasha Schwendenwein and Lauren VanCleave and freshmen Linda Fox and Donna MacLeod.

Szanto's team includes senior Anna Kiess, junior Ginni van Katwijk, sophomore Michelle Hall and freshmen Harmony D'Antoni, Kristine Kelly, Maryanne Ortiz, Doreen Polotzek and Jessica Shamburger.

The Cougars officially open the season on Oct. 13-14 when they travel to Las Cruces, N.M., to face host New Mexico State and Northern Colorado in a two-day tri-meet. UH will compete in front of the hometown fans for the first time at 10 a.m., Oct. 28 when they face Conference USA rival SMU and Oregon State at the CRWC Natatorium.

Ten letterwinners return from last season's team, which tied for 23rd place at the 2006 NCAA Championships. It marked the sixth consecutive season that the Cougars finished among the Top-25 leaders at the nation's top collegiate meet.

Leading the way is Szanto, who set school records in three events a year ago. The Budapest, Hungary, native also won the C-USA 200-yard individual medley championship and received the C-USA Academic Medal - given to student-athletes with grade-point averages of 3.75 or higher - for the third straight season.

The Cougars also return three sophomores who paid immediate dividends during their first collegiate seasons a year ago. Pa'lmai set a school record in the 400-yard individual medley and provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships last season.

Schwendenwein posted the Cougars' fastest times in four individual events, while VanCleave was tops in two events. Those three sophomores and Szanto combined to set UH records in the 200- and 400-yard medley relay during the 2006 C-USA Championship.

Under the leadership of award-winning diving head coach Jane Figueiredo, the Cougar divers should rank among the nation's best again in 2006-07. Kiess and Gitelson return for their senior seasons, while Pozdniakova ranked among the Top Two individual leaders in all three events at the 2006 C-USA Championship.

Kiess finished as the 2005 national runner-up at the NCAA Championships and earned All-America honors on the platform a year ago. Kiess received similar All-America honors on the platform in 2005.