Washington State University freshman Rachel Dong captured three events and overall first place as the WSU Cougars defeated host Denver and Texas Christian in a five-event swim meet here Saturday.

Dong captured the breaststroke, butterfly and individual medley competition in the Denver Pentathlon, while teammate Taryn Ternet, also a freshman, took top honors in the other two events, the freestyle and backstroke races.

Overall, WSU swimmers captured the top four individual spots and placed six in the top 10. The Cougars scored 147 points, followed by Texas Christian's 92 and Denver's 61.

Dong's total time in the five events was two minutes, 51.85 seconds, while Andree-Anne LeRoy was second with combined times of 2:52.77. She was followed by Ternett at 2:55.26 and Lindsay Henahan at 2:55.44. WSU's Rachelle Carano was seventh in 2:57.45 and Christina Swanson finished ninth in 2:57.95.

"We swam especially fast considering how tired the women were," Cougar head coach Rocco Aceto said. "After a challenging week of practice at the Olympic Training Center, it was nice to compete for the first time in over a month.

The WSU team has been training for a week at the OTC in Colorado Springs. They will remain at the center for another week, then take on UCLA and California-San Diego in Los Angeles Jan. 13.

"We will need to improve a lot before meeting UCLA next week, but it was nice to beat TCU in head to head competition today," Aceto commented. "TCU has a lot of swimmers ranked in the top 25 nationally, so this win shows our progress."

Denver Pentathlon: 1. WSU 2:51.85; 2. Texas Christian 92; 3. Denver 61.

Top 5 Individuals:
1. Rachel Dong, WSU, :24.75/:29.08/:30.64/:26.32/1:01.06/2:51.85;
2. Andree-Anne LeRoy, WSU, :25.00/:28.01/:31.53/:27.15/1:01.08/2:52.77;
3. Taryn Ternet, WSU, :24.45/:27.80/:33.86/:27.20/1:01.95/2:55.26;
4. Lindsay Henahan, WSU, :25.42/:28.91/:32.05/:26.39/1:02.67/2:55.44;
5. Marisa Schenke, TCU, :25.80/:28.15/:31.89/:27.64/1:02.86/2:56.34.

Other WSU finishers:
7. Rachelle Carano :25.49/:29.51/:31.86/:27.32/1:03.27/2:57.45;
9. Christina Swanson :24.91/:31.17/:30.99/:27.06/:1:03.82/2:57.95;
13. Rebecca Cohen :25.47/:29.26/:34.31/:27.96/1:03.45/3:00.45;
14. Theresa Dunn :25.95/:28.63/:35.13/:27.87/1:04.39/3:01.97;
16. Sara Schmeid :25.57/:29.87/:33.40/:29.24/1:04.95/3:03.03;
18. Nicole Chinn :27.91/:28.61/:35.14/:27.42/1:05.19;
20. Sasha Taylor :26.22/:29.19/:34.51/:29.03/1:06.01/3:04.96;
23. Katie Byrnes :26.71/:29.31/:36.49/:28.82/1:04.72/3:06.05;
29. Tatiana Maristany :26.39/:29.09/:37.72/:28.65/1:07.20/3:09.05;
38. Melissa Hubley :28.18/:32.64/:40.01/:27.96/1:07.52/3:16.31;
39. Semah Zavareh :27.08/:33.52/:37.50/:29.61/1:09.10/3:16.81;
41. Jill Olsen :26.86/:32.94/:38.41/:30.42/1:09.18/3:17.81;
44. Carrie Breed :29.53/:34.93/:38.07/:32.33/1:13.38/3:28.24.
(Times given in order for freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, individual medley and combined time)