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Rice Swimming: Owls chart course for greater consistency

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Rice swimming isn’t too far removed from regaining a spot atop Conference USA. Head coach Seth Huston knows the Owls are close to breaking through.

Every second matters in swimming. The slightest deviation from the optimal course, whether in an individual event or a training regiment, can change a result — or a season. That’s why Rice swimming head coach Seth Huston doesn’t obsess over individual results when plotting the course for his team’s future.

“I try not to get too caught up in like, hard, goals, like win conference or something like that,” Houston says, pointing instead toward the process inputs rather than the outputs. Like many coaches at Rice, his default mode is controlling the controllable.

Mere seconds separated Rice from FIU at the Conference USA Championship Meet. Things that don’t typically happen — a slow start or a bad transition — happened. That doesn’t mean he’s throwing out the process because of the results.

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Instead, Huston says he aims to teach his swimmers how to live in the moment. “If you’re in the moment, you’re minimizing your distractions, you’re probably going to be performing at about as high a level as you can at that point in time.”

Finding that place takes practice. But it’s achievable. And it isn’t dependent on what’s happening in the lane next to you.

“If you learn how to be in that place all the time. And your body is rested, and you’re ready to perform at a peak. And you’re in the moment, and you’ve got all the other distractions set aside, you’re gonna perform at a really high level,” Huston said, almost as if the philosophy were an iron-clad rule, an expectation.

If each swimmer can do that, can be ready when they step onto the block, Rice swimming will have a chance to win each race and each meet.

The Owls have the athletes to be true contenders no matter the scale of the competition. They work hard and are diligent when it comes to perfecting their craft. They’re doing the right things. The results will follow.

Huston remains steadfast. “One day it will go our way,” he declared. After winning multiple conference titles, overseeing countless school records being broken and sending several Owls to the Olympic trials, Huston has proven the process works. All that’s left is for his team to get back in the pool and keep swimming.

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Rice Swimming: Marta Cano-Minarro surges toward success

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The Rice swimming season was cut short. Still, the impression Marta Cano-Minarro made in a shortened campaign made waves at South Main.

Marta Cano-Minarro burst onto the Rice Swimming scene as a freshman in 2018. Her debut season was spectacular. She set the school record in the 200 IM. She won multiple CSCAA and C-USA Championships and was the anchor in three program-record-setting relay teams.

Her rapid ascent wasn’t unexpected. Prior to her arrival at Rice, Cano-Minarro competed in the FINA Junior World Swimming Championships where she finished Top 15 in the 200 Free. She also swam in the European Games, finishing sixth in the 200 Free.

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Rice swimming coach Set Huston said athletes like her “make the coach look pretty good”. He gave all the credit to Cano-Minnaro. Hutson cited her relentless pursuit to better herself and a work ethic commensurate with her own expectations, which are lofty.

Huston said Cano-Minarro “has big goals”, some of which she was able to achieve this past season. She won the 200 IM and 200 Free at the Conference USA Championships where she was named Co-Swimmer of the Meet. Soon after the season would end and she would be dubbed Conference-USA’s Co-Swimmer of the Year.

Cano-Minarro led the Owls in points at the conference championship, placing in the top three in seven different events, including four relays. Along the way, she set several personal bests as she continues to improve.

If the first two years of her collegiate career offer any indication, the best of Cano-Minarro could still be to come. That’s something that she and Rice swimming eagerly look forward to. The sooner she can get back in the pool, the sooner the rest of the world will see.

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Rice Swimming: Next wave of swimmers ready to step up

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The next wave of Rice swimming contributors are ready to rise to the occasion. Coach New opportunities await several underclassmen with new roles opening next season.

Rice swimming will lose a strong core of senior leaders when they return to the pool next season. As valuable as those seniors were in action, part of their legacy will be the impact they made on those to follow. The Owls have a host of up-and-coming swimmers ready to fill their shoes, several of which made splashes of their own this season.

Many freshmen experience an adjustment period when they first arrive on campus. The rigors of the academic load alongside the athletic requirements make it challenging to expect many newcomers to bear too much of the load too quickly. But there are always a few who earn the right for a bigger role through their own efforts.

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One such rising underclassmen was Maddie Howe. The true freshman wasn’t feeling well during the Conference USA Championship. Even though she was under the weather, she snuck into the finals for the 100-Fly.

Howe swam from the eighth and final lane in the championship swim. Not only she Howe medal, she won the event from the outermost lane, a rarity in swimming and a testament to Howe’s grit and perseverance.

Howe is one of several swimmers who could see her role increase in the near future. Becca Evans put together a strong sophomore campaign. Freshmen like  Shannon Campbell and Sini Koivu had strong finishes as the C-USA Championship. C-USA Co-Swimmer of the Year Marta Cano-Minarro was stellar.

And that doesn’t account for a crop of junior swimmers who have already ascended into crucial roles.

Head coach Seth Huston is excited to get back in the pool and let his swimmers get to work. “We’ll just talk about opportunity,” he said. “What opportunities are presenting themselves in your new role with one more year under your belt?” With that challenge presented, it will be up to each individual to work and earn their chance to broaden their role.

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Rice Swimming says goodbye to faithful senior class

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The Rice Swimming senior class had their careers ended earlier than they would have hoped, but they still managed some special moments in the pool.

Every so often a phenomenal young athlete steps on campus and turns heads. The once-in-a-lifetime type talent that wows everyone from the very start. For most members of the Rice swimming team, things don’t start that way. It’s a process, one that when followed to completion, leaves a satisfying reward for the swimmer and the program.

The culmination of years of focus is what made this senior class so special. As head coach Seth Huston described it, “It was just about them growing up.”

That development process shined through in their work ethic both in and out of the pool. “In a lot of ways they trained and raced better than they had throughout their career,” Huston said. “Honestly, they were their best [version of themselves].”

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It was that buy in and commitment to work that made them special. Sarah Nowaski, Harper Gillentine, Kate Nezelek and Claire Therien left their mark on Rice swimming in more ways than one.

In the water, these seniors were solid. The quarter was well decorated at the C-USA Championships alone. Nowaski placed third in the 400 IM. Gillentine was part of the 200 Free Relay team that finished second. Nezelek finished second in the 50 Free, 100 Free, 200 Free Relay and 400 Free. She also placed third in the 400 Medley Relay.

Therien’s story combines success with sweetness. The senior had never won an event entering in her career entering the final day of the Conference USA Championship. Then she got in the pool and swam the best race of her Rice career.

“She just got in there and kind of swam her race and came out on top in the end,” Huston said with pride. Therien’s moment encapsulated a career of hard work and served as the perfect summary of this senior class.

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Rice Swimming: The last Owls standing this spring

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Rice swimming was the last of the Owls’ teams to compete this spring, ending their season with a top five finish at a truncated CSCAA National College Invitational.

On a Tuesday evening in March Rice swimming flew from Houston to Cleveland to compete in the CSCAA National College Invitational. Coronavirus concerns had put some on edge, but the team hadn’t fully come to terms with the breadth and the pace of the problem at that time.

Still, the meet began as scheduled on Thursday, March 12. Although swimmers were in and out of the water as usual, the air in the Busbey Natatorium was flat. Rice swimming head coach Set Huston characterized the atmosphere as “distracted”, something he doesn’t ever really associated with his team.

To the contrary, Huston called the continued maturity of his team the defining achievement of the Owls’ season. He cited the teams’ resiliency through adversity and their ability to compete “anytime, anywhere, any place”. That growing resolve was put on display during the invitational.

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The swimmers were in the middle of their preliminary events when conferences around the country began canceling their basketball championships. The NBA had been shut down the night prior. Still, they swam on. Some teams pulled out between prelims and finals. As long as city of Cleveland and the hosting school Cleveland State deemed it permissible to compete, the Owls would press on.

As the final swims were beginning that night, teams were notified this would be the last day of the invitational. It too, like all other major sporting events around the world, had been tabled by the coronavirus pandemic.

Even with the world coming to a halt around them, Rice swimming competed to the very end. The Owls’ finished fifth place out of 33 teams, taking home silver medals in the 50-yard freestyle swam by Kate Nezelek and the team sprint relay. Rice has now placed in the top five in every appearance at the invitation, starting with the inaugural 2014 meet which the Owls won.

There were several impressive results along the way. Huston is particularly proud of his team’s sweep at the Dual-A-Palooza. A two-day event in which Rice topped Denver, Tulane and eventual C-USA Champion FIU. By and large, it was a successful season, and one that lasted longer than most every other collegiate season around the country.

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