Women’s NCAA Division I Preview: Freestyle

By John Lohn

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, March 5. THROUGHOUT the week, SwimmingWorldMagazine.com will preview the Women's NCAA Division I Championships to be held in Minneapolis, Minn., from March 8-10. First up, here's a look at the freestyle events.

Also, as a treat for our premium members, click here to find out how you can obtain an extensive resource package on the meet.

Sprint Freestyle
Let's be honest. Barring a major upset, Georgia's Kara Lynn Joyce is going to walk away with gold in the 50 and 100 free events, perhaps in record time. Joyce is the top seed in the 50 with a mark of 21.73, not far off her NCAA and American standard of 21.63 from last year's NCAA Championships. In the four-lap race, look for Joyce to make a run at Natalie Coughlin's 2003 American record of 47.00.

As it chases the team title, Arizona will need strong efforts from its sprint contingent to accumulate a bundle of points. Expect Lacey Nymeyer and Lara Jackson to push for top positions. Meanwhile, Cal's Dana Vollmer could make some noise in the 50 free, along with Kentucky's Jenny Bradford, the second seed. In the 100 free, Kara Denby (Auburn) and Emily Silver (Cal) are slotted second and third.

200 Freestyle
Although she is an overwhelming favorite in the shorter freestyles, Joyce will have some serious competition in this race. Nonetheless, she is talented enough to pull off the trifecta, as she proved last year with a sweep. Joyce enters this season as the fourth seed, but she did go 1:43.96 last year and a repeat would be far from stunning.

California will turn to the tandem of Emily Silver and Erin Reilly, the first and third seeds, for quality scoring. As for Arizona, it will look to Nymeyer in a third freestyle event, along with freshman Leone Vorster, the fifth seed.

Distance Freestyle
In the 500 freestyle, Auburn's Hayley Peirsol looks to be the favorite, although she enters as the third seed. Peirsol and second-seeded Adrienne Binder should give Auburn a major scoring boost here and in the 1650 free, where Peirsol and Binder rank No. 1 and No. 2. The top seed in the 500 is Georgia's Claire Maust and ninth-seeded Alicia Aemisegger (Princeton) could be in the mix.

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