Little Rock Shines with Two Occasion Wins to Open Rice Fall Splash

HOUSTON, Texas – Little Rock Swimming delivered a powerful efficiency on Friday evening on the Rice Fall Splash, capturing two particular person occasion victories and a number of other top-three finishes towards a aggressive subject that includes Rice, UTRGV, Loyola New Orleans, and St. Thomas.

The Trojans completed the opening day with 282 factors, highlighted by senior Gabriella O’Neil’s victory within the 100-yard Individual Medley and sophomore Megan Stewart’s commanding win within the 400-yard IM. Both swimmers led wire-to-wire, solidifying Little Rock’s momentum heading into Saturday’s races.

Head coach Nathan Townsend shared his ideas on the staff’s effort, saying, “The weather was absolutely awesome tonight, and it made for a great first session at the Rice Fall Splash. We had a lot of great performances across the board, which is really encouraging to see given how hard we’ve been training. It’s rewarding to see our work translating into these kinds of results. A couple of big highlights tonight were Gabriela O’Neil winning the 100 IM with a new personal best that ranks third in program history, and Megan Stewart winning the 400 IM with a personal best as well — also making her the third-fastest performer in team history.”

Relays

Little Rock’s “A” relay groups got here out robust in each relay occasions, beginning the meet with a second-place end within the 400-yard Medley Relay at 3:50.62. The quartet of Beatriz Comini Romero, Adara Stoddard, Amara Addison, and Gabriella O’Neil posted one of many program’s quickest early-season medley occasions.

Closing out the night, the Trojans claimed one other runner-up end within the 200-yard Freestyle Relay, clocking 1:34.47 behind Rice. The relay of Lena Nikolaeva, Addison, Olivia Elgin, and O’Neil capped the evening with a powerful remaining leg from O’Neil to safe the top-two end.

Individual medley

The Trojans dominated the IM occasions, with Gabriella O’Neil claiming first within the 100-yard IM at 57.68, adopted intently by Megan Stewart (58.33) and Adara Stoddard (59.59), giving Little Rock a formidable 1-2-4 end.

Later within the meet, Megan Stewart earned the staff’s second victory of the evening within the 400-yard IM, clocking 4:23.87 to prime Rice’s Ella Dyson by practically three seconds. Freshman Lulu Szumski additionally positioned robust with an eighth-place end at 4:42.81, marking a strong exhibiting for Little Rock’s depth within the self-discipline.

Breaststroke

Little Rock’s breaststroke squad continued their early-season success, with O’Neil (1:03.86) main the Trojans within the 100-yard Breaststroke, ending second total. Teammates Stoddard (1:05.57) and Paige Pala (1:05.60) positioned back-to-back within the prime 5, preserving Little Rock aggressive in each warmth.

Backstroke

Reigning school-record holder Amara Addison carried her robust momentum into the 200-yard Backstroke, putting fourth total with a time of two:05.37. Beatriz Comini Romero (2:07.21) and Lyla Roper (2:07.50) additionally swam season-best occasions, incomes priceless factors towards the staff’s total rating.

Butterfly

Freshman Lulu Szumski highlighted the butterfly races with a top-five end within the 200-yard Butterfly (2:10.92). Her robust closing 50 helped her out-touch a number of rivals and mark considered one of her quickest collegiate swims to this point.

Junior Olivia Elgin shared her perspective on the staff’s vitality, saying, “I thought the meet was a lot of fun from the very beginning — from when we got into practice this morning all the way through competition. The energy was high, and it was such a nice change of scenery getting to swim outside in the sun. I think we all really enjoyed that. Having a smaller team helped us rally behind each other, and we did a great job of that. Everyone was cheering and feeding off each other’s energy, which definitely showed in our races. We had a lot of season bests and even some personal bests today, which is really exciting and motivating for the rest of the team. It was a lot of fun, and we’re excited to get back at it tomorrow.”

 

Up subsequent

Saturday, October 25 – 10:30 a.m.

400 free relay (5 minute break to comply with)

200 breast

100 fly (10 minute break to comply with)

200 free

200 IM (10 minute break to comply with)

50 free

100 again

1000 free

200 medley relay

Diving 1m

Fans can comply with stay outcomes and occasion updates all through the weekend on MeetMobile by looking Rice Fall Splash 2025 and keep linked with Little Rock Swimming on social media for full protection and recaps.

For the most recent info on Little Rock Swimming, try LRTrojans.com. You can even comply with the staff on social media at @LittleRockSwimDive on Facebook, Instagram, and X.

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