East Carolina University
Conference USA Championships
Attila Kiraly Claims C-USA Men's 400 IM Title
February 25, 2011 | Swimming & Diving
Feb. 25, 2011
HOUSTON --- Freshman Attila Kiraly became the first Pirate ever to win the men's 400-yard individual medley as the third day of the Conference USA Championship and Invitational concluded Friday at the CRWC Natatorium on the University of Houston campus.
Kiraly posted an ECU record and NCAA 'B' qualifying time of 3:53.46 to earn the first individual victory by a Pirate at the Conference USA Invitational since 2004. Kiraly finished nearly six full second ahead of second-place finisher Steve Allnutt of Hawaii (3:59.40).
The Lady Pirates (439.5) remain in third-place, but are only 12.5 points out of first after trailing by 43.5 points Thursday. Rice (451) overtook SMU (446) for first-place Friday and holds a five-point edge over the Mustangs. Houston (356) is in fourth-place followed by Tulane (232.5) and Marshall (200).
Jenna Stewart, Natalia Favoreto, Kylie Francis and Kelsey Brosi teamed up to finish second in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a NCAA 'B' cut time of 1:32.57, less than second behind SMU's first-place squad (1:31.84).
The ECU trio of Kristen Giese, Meaghan Rauscher and Lauren Dufault all competed in the 400-yard IM finals finishing fifth, sixth and eighth, respectively.
Stephanie Harper joined Favoreto and Giese in the finals of the 100-yard breaststroke and placed second (1:03.30). Favoreto (1:04.14) finished just ahead of Giese (1:04.55) in fourth-place.
Freshman Anna Gibas (56.56) finished fifth in the finals of 100-yard backstroke by 0.24 ahead of Francis (56.80).
Junior Meghan Coyne picked up the bronze medal on the three-meter diving board with a score of 277.05. Sophomore Katie Yamamoto finished in fourth-place (254.20).
Men's teams from league schools ECU and SMU along with Hawaii and North Dakota are competing in the C-USA Men's Invitational. Hawaii leads the four-team invitational with 679.5 points, followed by SMU with 573.5 points. East Carolina (396.6) and North Dakota (317.5) round out the standings in third and fourth, respectively.
Junior Travis Stauder posted the Pirates' lone top 3 finish of the evening as he placed third in the 100-yard breaststroke with an NCAA 'B' cut time of 54.97, finishing a mere 0.03 behind SMU's Matthew Napier-Jameson for second-place.
The final day of the meet begins Saturday, Feb. 26 at 11 a.m. EST with the preliminaries of the 200-yard backstroke, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard breaststroke, 200-yard butterfly, and 1650-yard freestyle. The women's platform diving preliminaries will begin at 2 p.m. The finals for those events begin at 7 p.m. with the 400-yard freestyle relay also being contested.
