NCAA Women’s Division I Championships: Day Two Prelims – ON-DEMAND VIDEO AVAILABLE

Swimming World's NCAA Division I Landing Page

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, March 20. AFTER an impressive first night of swimming in College Station, Texas, the NCAA Women's Division I Championships began the second day of action with preliminary swims.

200 Medley Relay
After an incredible first night in which Arizona rallied back from a tough morning, Frank Busch will definitely have some work to do this evening after defending American record and NCAA titlists will be sitting out the 200 medley relay due to a false start by Hayley Degolia in prelims. The disqualification could have serious national-title implications going forward.

Wisconsin's Maggie Meyer, Ashley Wanland, Christine Zwiegers and Rebecca Thompson led qualifying with a time of 1:36.45, while Auburn (1:36.90), Georgia (1:37.02) and California (1:37.09) completed the top four. Tennessee (1:37.17), Florida (1:37.64), Texas A&M (1:37.67) and LSU (1:37.73) will also be in the championship final.

USC (1:38.33), Virginia (1:38.38), Texas (1:38.43), SMU (1:38.60), Stanford (1:38.63), Indiana (1:38.77) and Minnesota (1:38.89) qualified ninth through 15th, while Washington (1:38.90) benefited most from the shocking Arizona disqualification by taking the final transfer spot into the consolation heat.

400 IMON-DEMAND VIDEO
Princeton's Alicia Aemisegger earned the top seed in the distance medley event with a 4:03.19, which is the seventh-fastest effort all time and moved her into fifth all time in the event. Stanford's Julia Smit finished second in 4:04.56, but has the potential to win the title with a 4:01.56 on her resume.

Texas' Kathleen Hersey (4:04.56), Florida's Teresa Crippen (4:05.00), Arizona's Julie Stupp (4:05.56), USC's Katinka Hosszu (4:05.70), Florida's Stephanie Proud (4:07.00) and UNLV's Zsuzsa Jakabos (4:07.22) will also vie for the national title in the A final.

Auburn's Ava Ohlgren (4:07.28), Indiana's Allison Kay (4:08.05), Penn State's Kaitlin O'Brien (4:08.18), Arizona's Jenny Forster (4:08.82), Arkansas's Katie Kastes (4:09.24), Virginia's Claire Crippen (4:09.54), Minnesota's Jenny Shaughnessy (4:09.76) and Arizona's Kathryn Thompson (4:09.84) will swim in the consolation final.

Arizona bounced back in the event after the devastating relay disqualification to go 1 up, 2 down. Florida will gain major points after going 2 up.

100 Fly
California's Amanda Sims clocked a strong time of 51.12 to lead prelims. The effort tied her with Lara Jackson for seventh all time in the event. Meanwhile, California will earn some big points in the event as Dana Vollmer (51.30) and Hannah Wilson (51.60) qualified second and fourth to give the Golden Bears 3 up.

Stanford's Elaine Breeden (51.52), Arizona's Ana Agy (51.67), Arizona's Hailey Degolia (51.73), Florida's Jemma Lowe (51.76) and Stanford's Kelley Hug (52.09) also will swim for the title in finals.

Oregon State's Saori Haruguchi (52.19), Kentucky's Megan Pulskamp (52.21), Washington's Erin Campbell (52.28), Michigan's Caroline Rodriguez (52.34), Utah's Whitney Lopus (52.41), California's Tara Thomas (52.53), Auburn's Alana Dillette (52.53) and Arizona's Lara Jackson (52.58) made up the consolation heat.

On top of California going 3 up and 1 down, Stanford (2 up) and Arizona (2 up, 1 down) will have the chance to gain valuable points.

200 Free
American-record holder Dana Vollmer of California broke the meet record with a time of 1:42.63. SMU's Martina Moravcova held the previous meet record since clocking a 1:43.08 in 1997. Vollmer's time proved to be the fourth-best of all time and gives her three of the top five.

Georgia's Morgan Scroggy finished a distant second in 1:43.29, while California's Sara Isakovic took third in 1:43.43. Stanford's Kate Dwelley (1:43.54), Texas' Karlee Bispo (1:43.86), Georgia's Allison Schmitt (1:43.87), Georgia's Chelsea Nauta (1:44.00) and Arizona's Justine Schluntz (1:44.51) also made the championship heat.

Auburn's Caitlin Geary (1:44.71), Arizona's Leone Vorster (1:44.73), Arizona's Taylor Baughman (1:44.90), Penn State's Kelly Nelson (1:44.94), Minnesota's Meredith McCarthy (1:44.97), Texas A&M's Christine Marshall (1:45.17), Georgia's Erica Malagon (1:45.33) and California's Liv Jensen (1:45.41) earned consolation spots.

Georgia will make up some big ground in the event with 3 up and 1 down, while California went 2 up, 1 down. Arizona also went 1 up, 2 down.

100 Breast
USC's Rebecca Soni tracked down one of the Tara Kirk breaststroke records she wants, but not the big one. Soni qualified with a time of 58.60 that beat Kirk's meet record of 58.62 set in 2003. Soni, however, will be gunning for Kirk's American and U.S. Open record of 57.77 this evening. The effort also stands as the fifth-best of all time, and pushed the final 59-second time out of the top 15 as the event continues to get faster overall.

Minnesota's Jillian Tyler, already the sixth-fastest all time with a 58.80, qualified second in 59.07, while Arizona's Annie Chandler qualified third in 59.18 with a time that beat Arizona's school record held by Amanda Beard since 2000 with a 59.73.

Georgia's Michelle McKeehan (59.34), Wisconsin's Ashley Wanland (59.47), Texas A&M's Alia Atkinson (59.69), Notre Dame's Samantha Maxwell (59.73) and Georgia's Colleen Haase (59.75) will also compete in the big final.

In a sign of the times, not even a sub-minute time was good enough for finals as the ninth and 10th seeds broke the 1:00 barrier.

Washington's Genna Patterson (59.77), George Mason's Ashley Danner (59.99), USC's Katy Houston (1:00.07), Georgia's Kelly McNichols (1:00.08), Indiana's Sarah Stockwell (1:00.15), Georgia's Mhyria Miller (1:00.18), Tennessee's Jamie Saffer (1:00.26) and California's Alexandra Ellis (1:00.36) made up the consolation final.

Georgia will continue its push for a national title during the event this evening with 2 up and 1 down.

100 Back
Already the second-best of all time in the event, Florida's Gemma Spofforth tied for the 14th-fastest time ever with another top 15 time when she qualified first in 51.45. Auburn's Rachel Goh (51.66) and Margo McCawley (51.68) will give the Tigers some big points with second and third seeds.

Arizona's Hailey Degolia (51.69), Arizona's Ana Agy (51.78), California's Lauren Rogers (51.92), Virginia's Mei Christensen (51.99) and Indiana's Kate Zubkova (52.04) comprised the rest of the championship heat.

Tennessee's Jenny Connolly (52.13), USC's Kristen Lahey (52.57), Washington's Erin Campbell (52.60), Georgia's Alex Putra (52.64), Stanford's Laura Wadden (52.70), Auburn's Juliann McLane (52.77), Auburn's Melissa Marik (52.79) and Georgia's Kristin Shickora (52.85) earned the consolation heat spots.

Auburn will be the big mover with 2 up, 2 down in the event, while Arizona will continue to try to respond to the relay disqualification with 2 up in the finals.

Three-meter diving
Houston's Anastasia Pozdniakova topped qualifying with 389.05 points, while Texas' Jessica Livingston placed second with 360.15 points. Indiana's Christina Loukas (350.60), Purdue's Ashley Karnes (331.10), Indiana's Brittney Feldman (330.40), Missouri's Kendra Melnychuk (326.70), Duke's Abby Johnson (325.85) and Texas' Shelby Cullinan (321.75) also earned the right to dive at night.

UCLA's Marisa Samaniego (320.85), Hawaii's Emma Friesen (320.00), Alabama's Carrie Dragland (318.30), Princeton's Kathrine Giarra (315.70), Miami's Jenna Dreyer (314.05), Purdue's Emily Wetzel (313.50), Drexel's Kate Hynes (312.55) and Georgia's Hannah Moore (307.65) earned sports in consolation diving.

Hynes won the consolation round with 329.75 points, while Dreyer finished second in 319.35. Giarra (313.05), Dragland (307.65), Friesen (306.30), Moore (300.95), Wetzel (291.70) and Samaniego (291.10) took third through eighth in consolations.

Gemma Spofforth places first in the prelims of the 100 Backstroke at the 2009 NCAA Championships.

Dana Vollmer places first in the prelims of the 200 Freestyle at the 2009 NCAA Championships.

Alicia Aemiseggar places first in the prelims of the 400 IM at the 2009 NCAA Championships.

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