Tulane Aquatics Have a Strong Opening Day at Mardi Gras Invite
The Tulane swimming & diving team had a strong opening day at the Mardi Gras Invite on Friday at the Reily Center Natatorium with a 51-24 victory over North Texas in the swimming portion of the meet and also totaled four of the top 10 three-meter diving marks.
The Green Wave won all seven events against North Texas in the first dual meet of the competition to earn 51 team points.
The 200 medley A team of Andrea Zeebe, Paula Gaya Bisquerra, Eliza Lennox, and Rafaela Sumida started the day earning the victory in a 1:44.81. The B team of Nicole Fant, Samantha Schoenborn, Olcaytu Hatipoglu, and Marin Shimkus swam a 1:54.19 to take third.
Lise Coetzee earned the 200 free win in a time of 1:54.08. Sydney Mullin was the runner-up with a 1:57.13. Mary Kate Kupsky earned a point for the team with a fourth-place finish in a 1:58.03.
The 200 fly was won by Varvara Gkiouzepa Petropoulou in a time of 2:02.37. Phoebe Johnson earned third with a 2:07.77.
The 100 IM was the first of two victories for Gwen Shahboz. She swam a 59.09 to take first place in the event. She also won the 200 breast with a 2:18.77.
Danielle Barberie took third in the 100 IM (1:00.21). Ebba Holgersson placed fourth to score a point in a 1:00.85. Barbie also finished third in the 200 breast (2:22.10).
Zeebe won the 100 back (2:02.09) as the Green Wave took each of the top four places in the event. Shimkus was the runner-up with 2:03.22, Schoenborn placed third with a 2:04.76, while Kupsky took fourth with a 2:06.44.
The Green Wave A team of Fant, Sumida, Hatipoglu, and Lennox won the 200 free relay (1:35.12). The squad’s B team of Petropoulou, Coetzee, Johnson, and Charley Floyd took third (1:40.36).
TU Diving Did Well, Too
In the diving portion of the meet, Libby Brewer finished second overall in the 3M with a score of 266.80. Tannah Proudfoot (6th overall – 161 pts.), Taylor Cekay (7th overall – 150 pts.), and Eva Shawver (10th overall – 85.20 pts.) also placed in the top 10 for Tulane
The team wraps up competition on the second day of the Mardi Gras Invite starting Saturday with a head-to-head matchup against New Mexico. The 1-meter diving competition starts at 12 p.m. The team diving gets started at 1:30 p.m. The Mardi Gras Invite wraps up at 5 p.m. with a dual meet against Little Rock.
Doug has covered a gamut of sporting events in his fifty-plus years in the field. He started doing sideline reporting for Louisiana Tech football games for the student radio station. Doug was Sports Director for KNOE-AM/FM in Monroe in the mid-80s, winning numerous awards from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association for Best Sportscast and Best Play-by-Play. High school play-by-play for teams in Monroe, Natchitoches, New Orleans, and Thibodaux, LA dot his resume. He did college play-by-play for Northwestern State University in Natchitoches for nine years. Then, moving to the Crescent City, Doug did television PBP of Tulane games and even filled in for legendary Tulane broadcaster, Ken Berthelot in the only game Kenny ever missed while doing the Green Wave games. His father was an alumnus of Tulane in the 1940s, so Doug has attended Tulane football games in old Tulane Stadium, the Superdome, and Yulman. He was one of the 86,000 plus on December 1, 1973, sitting in the North End Zone to seeTulane shutout the LSU Tigers, 14-0. He was there when the Posse ruled Fogelman and in Turchin when the Wave made it to the World Series. He currently is the public address voice of the Tulane baseball team.