Women's swimming and diving falls to a pair of top teams

The Michigan women's swimming and diving team saw orange. In front of a large Longhorn fan base at Canham Natatorium Friday, the 16th-ranked Wolverines fell to No. 4 Texas and No. 9 Indiana.

Michigan started the meet strong, winning the 200-yard freestyle relay. The team of junior Margaret Kelly, sophomore Natasha Moodie, senior Hannah Smith and freshman Alexa Mehesan raced past the opposition in a time of 1:32.54.

But the Wolverines couldn't match the pace set by Texas and Indiana in most of the remaining events. Michigan was blown out against both teams in the double-dual meet, losing 225-165 to the Longhorns and 232-157 to the Hoosiers.

Though the Wolverines struggled to win races, they took many positives from the meet.

“We had a lot of season-best times today,” Michigan coach Jim Richardson said.

The Wolverines were overmatched from the start, competing against several athletes who participated in the Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

Kelly bested the field in the 400-yard individual medley with an NCAA consideration time of 4:15.73. She also competed in the 200-yard individual medley where she finished second (2:01.25) alongside teammate senior Payton Johnson who finished third (2:04.80). Olympian Kathleen Hersey of Texas, a freshman, claimed the event with a blistering 1:58.37.

“It’s really a good opportunity for us because we’re able to step it up against some of the best in the country,” Kelly said.

Smith also had a solid performance this weekend after missing four days of practice with a fever. In addition to helping the 200-yard freestyle relay to victory, she placed second in the 200-yard backstroke(1:59.09), third in the 100-yard backstroke(55.51) and contributed to the 400-yard freestyle relay that went stroke for stroke with Texas until the final 50 yards, at which point the Longhorns pulled away.

Richardson expressed concern over the lack at depth in breaststroke. The Wolverines' best in the stroke, senior Christine Nichols, was out with a strained leg muscle. Four veteran breaststrokers graduated last year and the coaching staff did not emphasize it in recruiting.

Kelly, filling in for Nichols, had a solid performance in the 100-yard breaststroke with a third-place finish (1:04.69).

"A lot is going to hinge on the breaststroke legs," Richardson said. "I don’t want to pull Margaret Kelly off of events she’s really exceptional in and swim her in an event that’s not one of her best."

Indiana diver and Olympian Christina Loukas dominated both the one-meter and three-meter events. Freshman Amanda Lohman posted Michigan’s best performance in both events with a fifth-place finishes.

Though the its lone victory has come against Toledo, Michigan (0-2 Big Ten, 1-5 Overall) remains confident after showing promise against some of the best teams in the nation and competing against some the best talent in the world.

"By the time we swim at Texas A&M (in three weeks), we'll probably have swum against seven out of the top 10 teams in the country," Richardson said. "We're not going to see much faster swimming than what we've seen here and what we'll see there."