Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
Arena Invitational
Dogs Stroking Best Times
11/20/2010 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Nov. 20, 2010 improved her 200-yard backstroke time by two seconds from her morning to evening swim.
FRESNO, Calif. - The Bulldog swimmers concluded the three-day Arena Invitational in Long Beach, Calif. The Dogs competed against some of the top teams in the nation including Stanford, UC Berkley, SDSU, BYU, UNLV and many others. As a team Fresno State scored 151 points and finished 15th out of the 19 strong competitive teams.
Results from the Arena Invitational
"I am pretty happy with the whole invite," said head coach Jeanne Fleck. "We dealt with a lot of illness on the team and the girls battled and they all swam their events and did it without any complaints."
"It was tough Invitational and a lot of great competition including some of the best teams in the country," Fleck continued. "We competed well and overall it was a great experience. We broke three school records and you can't complain about that."
Dani Yoho (Sugar Land, Texas) and Dede Torres (Fresno, Calif.) both clocked lifetime best times in the 100-yard freestyle event. Yoho who already holds the Fresno State record for the 50-yard freestyle is making strides to be a force in the 100-yard. She clocked a time of 51.94, improving her best by more than a second and came in 36th place overall.
Freshman Michelle Dockendorf (Santa Barbara, Calif.) who earned WAC swimmer of the week honors earlier this season had a great 200-yard breaststroke event. She improved her personal best by clocking a time of 2:17.81 and came in 15th overall. Her time qualified her for the consolation finals and was just a second off the NCAA B-Cut time.
Sophomore Rayanne Nguyen recorded a season best time in the 200-yard butterfly event with a time of 2:05.92 and 38th place overall.
The 200-yard backstroke event was a powerful one with junior Heidi Gjoen (Oslo, Norway) leading the way. Gjoen clocked a 2:05.33 and 31st place and earned a chance to swim later in the evening. She ended up improving her time the second time around with 2:03.11, shaving over two seconds off.
To wrap up the meet the team competed in the 400-yard freestyle relay event. Brooke Fuller, Dani Yoho, Dede Torres and Heidi Gjoen together clocked a time of 3:28.80 topping the time from the 2010 WAC Championships and just .57 off the Fresno State record set in 1999.
This Invitational concludes the swimming Bulldogs 2010 competitions. They return in 2011 for a home competition vs. Cal State East Bay Jan. 8 at Clovis North Aquatics Complex.
Down in Tucson, Ariz. the Dogs dove off the 1-meter board in day two of competition. The Wildcat Diving Invite hosted some of the top competition in the nation including ASU, USC, Arizona, Wyoming, New Mexico and many other top diving programs.
"We had a decent day today," said diving coach Taryn Patrick. "We are now looking forward to getting ready for platform tomorrow. The competition pool is smaller so we are looking to rebound and do better in the final day of the Invite."
Sophomore Stacey Luke (Kenmore, Wash.) earned 203.9 points for the Bulldogs and ranked 38th among the 66 total divers.
Kendra Weeks (Folsom, Calif.) was right behind Luke in 39th place and scored 203.5 points. Freshman Hannah Prigge (Rocklin, Calif.) finished the 1-meter dive in 53rd place by earning 183.35 points.
"We Are Your Team!" - The Fresno State divers continue competition Jan. 21 at the Wildcat Diving Invite. Stay updated on gobulldogs.com for recaps and results. The swimmers return home Jan. 8 to Clovis North Aquatics Complex as they host Cal State East Bay. The divers head to the Bruin Diving Invite Jan.7-9 in the 2011 New Year.
Players Mentioned
