NCAA Division I Women’s Champs: Day 1 Prelims

COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 20. THE NCAA Division I Women's Championships got under way this morning at Ohio State University. Here's a recap of the morning preliminaries, which featured races in the 200 freestyle relay, 500 freestyle, 200 individual medley, 50 freestyle and 400 medley relay.

200 freestyle relay

The Cal Golden Bears collected the top seed for the finals as Madison Kennedy, Hanna Wilson, Emily Silver and Dana Vollmer stopped the clock in 1:28.05, quick enough to fend off Arizona's foursome of Lara Jackson, Taylor Baughman, Emma Darlington and Lindsey Kelly, who went 1:28.21. The third-fastest qualifier was Stanford in 1:28.59.

Advancing in the fourth position was Tennessee in 1:29.21 and Wisconsin was right behind in 1:29.28. The rest of the championship field includes Texas A&M (1:29.40), Auburn (1:29.43) and Kentucky (1:29.60).

500 Freestyle

The University of Florida's Caroline Burckle made a run at Janet Evans' NCAA record in the event by clocking a prelim time of 4:35.79. That effort wasn't far off the 4:34.39 that Evans threw down at the 1990 NCAA Champs. Burckle, whose performances was good for a pool mark, figures to give the record a run in tonight's finals.

Qualifying in the second position was Princeton sophomore Alicia Aemisegger, who produced a time of 4:39.69, the only other effort under 4:40. She was followed by another rising star on the American scene, Michigan's Emily Brunemann, the Big Ten Conference titlist. Brunemann touched in 4:40.05 and was followed by Texas A&M's Kristen Heiss (4:40.42) and Texas' Susana Escobar (4:40.63). The rest of the championship final field was rounded out by Georgia's Chelsea Nauta (4:41.08), Northwestern's Ellen Grigg (4:41.82) and Auburn's Maggie Bird (4:41.95).

200 individual medley

This event is flat-out loaded and Stanford's Julia Smit will be the No. 1 seed in tonight's final, thanks to a prelim swim of 1:54.97. That effort was a little more than a second off Katie Hoff's American record of 1:53.77 and Maggie Bowen's NCAA standard of 1:53.91. Smit was followed in the second position by Auburn's Ava Ohlgren (1:55.25) and Washington's Ariana Kukors (1:56.02).

Sitting fourth and fifth for the final are Texas A&M's Julia Wilkinson (1:56.41) and Auburn's Emily Kukors (1:56.78), the older sister of Ariana. Michigan's Margaret Kelly finished the morning in sixth with a time of 1:57.20 and the last two slots for a final were occupied by Arizona's Hailey Degolia (1:57.49) and Oregon State's Saori Haruguchi (1:57.60).

Stanford's Elaine Breeden and Florida's Gemma Spofforth each clocked 1:57.94 for ninth, but had to settle for spots in the consolation final.

50 Freestyle

California junior Madison Kennedy topped qualifying in the sprint with a time of 21.87, one of only two sub-22 efforts from the morning. Arizona's Lara Jackson was the other swimmer to crack the 22-second barrier, as she touched in 21.98.

Kara Denby of Auburn and Lacey Nymeyer of Arizona were the third and fourth-fastest qualifiers, going 22.06 and 22.07, respectively. Anna Turner, another Arizona standout, was fifth in 22.09, setting the stage for the Wildcats to collect big points tonight. The field for the final was completed by Texas A&M's Triin Aljand (22.11), UC-Santa Barbara's Anne Marie May (22.15) and Tennessee's Michelle King (22.23).

400 Medley Relay

The Arizona quartet of Justine Schluntz, Annie Chandler, Ana Agy and Anna Turner qualified first for the night session, going 3:32.89. That time gave the Wildcats a sizable cushion over Auburn, which saw Melissa Marik, Kara Denby, Margo McCawley and Emily Kukors touch the wall in 3:34.57. Cal filled the third position in 3:34.61.

The University of Southern California was fourth in 3:34.68 with Minnesota (3:35.19) and Indiana (3:35.31) going fifth and sixth. The field for the final was completed by Florida (3:35.42) and Stanford (3:35.73).

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