Bulldogs break two more school records to wrap up TYR Invitational

Friday, November 17

Evanston, IL

Fresno State

TYR Invitational

Bulldogs break two more school records to wrap up TYR Invitational

11/19/2017 4:57:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

By: Andrew Tomsky / Assistant Director of Communications

Complete TYR Invitational Results (PDF)

EVANSTON, Ill. – After freshman Zofia Niemczak broke the program record in the 100 Butterfly on Saturday, Niemczak broke the school record and took first place in the 200 Fly on Sunday while junior Ugne Mazutaityte established a new program record in the 100 Individual Medley and won the 200 Back to lead the 'Dogs on the final day of the TYR Invitational.

The Bulldogs were one of nine women's teams at the meet, which included Big 10 schools Northwestern and Michigan State, who finished in the top-two spots. Despite missing all of the individual events on Friday following 36 hours of travel and not having any divers at the meet, the Bulldogs still finished ahead of Illinois-Chicago, Saint Louis, and Truman State in the final team standings.

After the Bulldogs had a cancelled flight on Thursday the squad visited five different states en route to reaching Chicago. The extended travel prevented the team from prelim swims on Friday morning but the squad raced in both team relays Friday night before full days of swimming on Saturday and Sunday.

Sunday Highlights

Niemczak easily had the top times among all competitors in both the prelims and finals of the 200 Butterfly. Her winning time of 2:00.16 in the A final was nearly two seconds faster than the second place finisher and broke the previous program record of 2:00.77, set by Esme Gullick in the 2016-17 season. The Bulldog freshman had previously broken Gullick's 100 Fly record on Saturday. Kimberly Harbert also swam well in the event, placing third overall in 2:02.07, and Gabbie Libang placed fifth in the B final.
Mazutaityte broke the program 100 IM record twice on Sunday, touching in 59.72 in the prelims before placing fourth overall in 58.21 in the final. Lucy Davies and Manuela Mendolicchio also broke the previous 100 IM program record in the finals, with Davis also making the A final and placing seventh overall with a 59.51 time. The program record for the event had been 1:00.14, set by Brooke Rodriguez in 2015-16.
Mazutaityte picked up the 'Dogs first win of the day in the 200 Backstroke, going from 1:58.28 in the prelims to a winning time of 1:55.83 in the final. That time was a season best to win the event while Emily Cutler also made the A final and placed sixth in 2:02.92.
Mendolicchio had a second place finish in the A final of the 200 Breaststroke with an NCAA B cut time of 2:12.89, which was just .29 seconds back of that program record. Davies also scored points in the event, placing 15^th overall.
In the 1650 Freestyle Bulldog sophomore Emily Niles easily had a career-best time, touching at 16:59.12 to place fourth overall. In other individual events, Osianna McReed was fifth and Niemczak was seventh in the 50 Fly and McReed was the top Bulldog finisher in the 200 Free.
The meet concluded with the 400 Free Relay as the Bulldog 'A' team of Katelin Britton, McReed, Mazutaityte, and Niemczak took fifth place in 3:28.47, a team season best.

Saturday Highlights

Niemcak qualified for the A final in the 100 Fly with a time of 55.55 Saturday morning. She cut that time by nearly a second in the final with a program-record 54.60 finish. The time was the first sub-55 second 100 Fly mark in program history, topping the previous record of 55.05 set by Esme Gullick during the 2015-16 season. Niemcak placed third in the race, narrowly missing the NCAA B cut time of 54.49. The 'Dogs had two swimmers in the A final as Harbert placed eighth with a career-best time of 56.12 while Libang placed ninth and won the B final in 56.27.
Mazutaityte reached the A final in the 100 Backstroke and also finished third with a season-best and NCAA B cut time of 54.84. She has now posted NCAA B times in both the 100 and 200 Back this season. Cutler won the B final in the 100 Back with a time of 55.65, cutting nearly a second off her prelim time.
Mendolicchio narrowly missed the A final in the 100 Breast but came back to win the B final with a season-best time of 1:02.89, just .27 seconds behind her Fresno State program-record time. She had the sixth fastest time among all swimmers in the final round.
In the 400 IM, Davies placed second in the B final with a career-best time of 4:24.00. Vanessa Dugan also reached the B final and placed 16^th overall. Britton led the Bulldogs in the 200 Freestyle, placing sixth in the B final with a season-best 1:54.06
In the team relays on Saturday night the Fresno State 'A' team took fifth among 17 quartets in the 800 Free Relay as Cutler, Niemcazk, Emma Monnich, and Mazutaityte had a time of 7:32.94, nearly eight seconds better than the team's previous season best. The Bulldog 'A' team took 8^th in the 200 Medley Relay with a time of 1:44.98.

Friday Highlights

The Bulldogs were unable to swim in the individual event finals on Friday night having not been able to make the prelims, but the team did have entrants in two relay events.
Fresno State had the seventh place finisher in the 400 Medley Relay as the 'A' team of Mazutaityte, Mendolicchio, Niemzcak, and McReed had a team season-best time of 3:48.49. The 'A' team comprised of McReed, Britton, Harbert, and Casey Kennemann led the squad placing 11^th in the 200 Free Relay in 1:36.84

Quotable
Assistant Coach Anthony Randall

"With the adversity we ran into the team really rallied and stepped up. It started the first day with just being in the pool and then yesterday winning heats at night and everyone for the most part improving their times. We finished in a positive way as we swam really strong and competed. Even though we weren't there for the first day we really held strong and finished the meet really well."

What's Next

The Bulldog swimmers and divers will come back together for a home dual against CSU Bakersfield on Saturday, Dec. 9, at 12 p.m.

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