GREENSBORO, NC – Lise Coetzee of Tulane University secured a gold medal in the 200-yard freestyle on Thursday at the American Conference Swimming and Diving Championships, propelling the Green Wave to fifth place in the overall team standings.
Coetzee finished the race with a time of 1:46.77, a personal best, edging out Rice University’s Ava Portello by just .01 seconds, according to results released by the American Athletic Conference. This victory marks her second medal of the championship, following a silver medal in the 500-yard freestyle on Wednesday.
Tulane’s performance on the second day of competition saw the team climb one position in the rankings, accumulating a total of 459 points. Seven individual or team events finished in the top ten, and thirteen Green Wave swimmers and divers scored points for the team.
Rafaela Sumida contributed to Tulane’s point total with a ninth-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle, clocking in at 1:49.09. Phoebe Johnson followed closely behind, securing tenth place with a lifetime best of 1:50.08. Sydney Mullin too added a point for Tulane with a season-best time of 1:52.68.
In the 400-yard individual medley, Andrea Zeebe led Tulane with a fifth-place finish and a lifetime best time of 4:16.99. Gwen Shahboz finished twelfth (4:23.39), Danielle Barberie fourteenth (4:25.14), and Mary Kate Kupsky nineteenth (4:26.67), all contributing to the team’s score.
Eliza Lennox earned seventeenth place in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 54.22, whereas Olcaytu Hatipoglu finished eighteenth (55.41). Libby Brewer secured seventh place in the 1-meter dive, earning 23 team points with a score of 249.75.
The Tulane relay teams also contributed to the team’s success. The 200-yard freestyle relay team, comprised of Lennox, Nicole Fant, Sumida, and Marin Shimkus, finished seventh with a time of 1:32.36. The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Zeebe, Ebba Holgersson, Lennox, and Coetzee also placed seventh, finishing in 3:41.51.
The American Conference Championships continue on Friday, February 20, with preliminaries beginning at 9:30 a.m. And finals at 5 p.m. The 3-meter diving preliminaries are scheduled to begin at 11 a.m., with finals at 4 p.m. Events on the third day include the 100-yard backstroke, 100-yard breaststroke, 200-yard butterfly, 3-meter diving, and the 800-yard freestyle relay.
