NCAA Division I Women’s Champs: Day Two Prelims

COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 21. AFTER an unbelievably fast first evening, an intense day of preliminary competition is ahead for fans at the McCorckle Aquatic Pavilion in Columbus, Ohio at the NCAA Division I Women's Championships.

200 medley relay
Arizona will look to defend its title from a year ago when Hailey Degolia, Annie Chandler, Lara Jackson and Lindsey Kelly won the event with an American-record time of 1:36.09.

The Wildcats grabbed the top seed heading into finals as the foursome of Justine Schluntz, Chandler, Brandy Collins and Kelly posted the quickest time of 1:37.62 from prelims for a pool record.

Texas A&M's quartet of Julia Wilkinson, Alia Atkinson, Triin Aljand and Sarah Woods finished second in 1:37.81, while Stanford's team of Fiona O'Donnell-McCarthy, Caroline Bruce, Elaine Breeden and Brooke Bishop placed third in 1:37.93.

The rest of the top eight will be made up of Auburn (1:38.16), Georgia (1:38.57), California (1:38.74), Florida (1:38.96) and Indiana (1:39.11).

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400 IM
Ava Ohlgren of Auburn will have her work cut out for her if she intends on winning the 400 IM for the second straight year. Last year, Ohlgren captured the title with a 4:04.08. This year, Ohlgren qualified fifth with a time of 4:08.95.

Stanford's Julia Smit joined Washington's Ariana Kukors under 4:07 as the top two qualifiers with Smit notching a 4:06.75, while Kukors touched second in 4:06.99.

Princeton's Alicia Aemisegger clinched the third seed with a time of 4:07.06, while Oregon State's Saori Haruguchi finished fourth in 4:07.63.

The final championship heat spots will go to Michigan's Emily Brunemann (4:10.35), Florida's Stephanie Proud (4:10.52) and Texas A&M's Melissa Hain (4:11.02).

In the Arizona vs. Auburn dual up top, Ohlgren was the lone qualifier for the defending champs, while Arizona did not have a top 16 finisher.

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100 fly
Christine Magnuson of Tennessee will attempt to claimed UT's first national title in the event after scorching the pool with a time of 50.99. This improved her lifetime-best time of 51.00 set at the SEC Championships in February, and moved her even closer to Dana Vollmer's 50.69 to become the third-fastest swimmer in the history of the event. Additionally, Magnuson's time is now the 10th-fastest ever, bumping her previous 51.00 back to 11th all time.

Vollmer, however, will have something to say about Magnuson's title aspirations as the defending champ qualified second in 51.33.

Arizona State's Caitlin Andrew finished third in 51.92, while Triin Aljand of Texas A&M touched fourth in 51.94 to become the 15th-quickest performer all time. While Andrew already stands 11th with a 51.68, Aljand pushed Limin Liu and Hailey Degolia from the top 15 as they had matching 51.96s heading into the day.

The rest of the championship heat will be made up by Stanford's Elaine Breeden (52.04), Arizona's Degolia (52.31), Arizona's Ana Agy (52.69) and Washington's Erin Campbell (52.73).

While Arizona qualified two in the big final, Auburn had no one make it to finals in the event.

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200 free
Florida's Caroline Burckle is the early favorite to double up her title winnings after blasting the 500 free NCAA record last night with the largest margin of victory in NCAA history. Today, Burckle qualified first with a 1:44.12 and will be trying to dethrone reigning champ Lacey Nymeyer of Arizona.

Nymeyer, however, claimed the second seed with a time of 1:44.49, while Texas A&M will amass some big points tonight as Julia Wilkinson (1:44.86) and Christine Marshall (1:44.94) qualified third and fourth.

The rest of the big finalists include Stanford's Kate Dwelley (1:44.98), Northwestern's Andrea Hupman (1:45.07), Auburn's Emily Kukors (1:45.03) and Georgia's Morgan Scroggy (1:45.40).

In the Auburn vs. Arizona battle, Arizona went one up, two down as Leone Vorster (13th/1:45.91) and Taylor Baughman (14th/1:46.02) qualified, while Kukors is Auburn's lone participant tonight.

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100 breast
Southern California's Rebecca Soni posted the sole sub-1:00 preliminary time as she touched first in a pool-record of 59.51. Should she pull off the win, it would be the first 100 breast title for the Women of Troy at the NCAA Championships.

Arizona's Annie Chandler earned the second seed with a time of 1:00.23, while Stanford's Elizabeth Smith (1:00.29) and Minnesota's Jillian Tyler (1:00.38) qualified third and fourth.

Virginia Tech's Jessica Botzum (1:00.56), UCLA's Nicolette Teo (1:00.58), Texas A&M's Alia Atkinson (1:00.73) and Tennessee's Michele King (1:00.75) completed the rest of the top eight qualifiers.

Arizona went one up and two down with Jacquelyn Craft (10th/1:00.94) and Jessica Embick (12th/1:00.98) making the small final, while Auburn qualified a pair into the consolation heat with Kara Denby (9th/1:00.88) and Melanie Roberts (15th/1:01.43) returning this evening.

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100 back
In what may wind up being one of the quickest heats from top to bottom tonight, Florida's Gemma Spofforth, already the second-fastest swimmer ever in the event, popped the 14th-quickest time ever in the event with a 51.96 to earn lane four. Pretty amazing to think that the prelim time from Spofforth would have won the 100 back title last year as Auburn's Rachel Goh took that with a 51.97, now the 15th-best effort ever.

Should Spofforth win this evening, she would join Kristen Linehan as the only other Gator to win the event as Linehan went back-to-back in 1989-90 with times of 54.98 and 54.10.

Arizona's Hailey Degolia qualified second with a 52.02, off her best time of a 51.67 set during the American-record 400 medley relay last night.

California's Lauren Rogers stopped the clock in 52.52 to qualify third, while Arizona's Justine Schluntz placed fourth in 52.98.

Indiana earned the next two spots with Kate Zubkova from Ukraine qualifying fifth in 53.32 and Presley Bard taking sixth in 53.33.

Arizona's Ana Agy (53.50) and SMU's Anja Carman (53.59) completed the championship heat.

In the event, Arizona qualified three up and one down with Andrea Boritzke finishing 12th in 53.90. Auburn came up short with three down as Julianne McLane (53.82), Melissa Marik (53.90) and Margo McCawley (53.93) qualified 10th, 12th and 14th.

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Three-meter diving
Hawaii's Emma Friesen continued her strong meet thus far as she earned the top seed in finals with a 362.90. Ohio State's Bianca Alvarez (339.65) and Texas' Kathryn Kelly (338.80) finished second and third, while Georgia's Hannah Moore (338.65), Ohio State's Chelsea Davis (335.95), Georgia Tech's Hannah Krimm (324.65), Indiana's Brittney Feldman (320.30) and South Carolina's Taryn Zack (320.25) made up the rest of the championship eight.

In the consolation round, Texas' Mary Yarrison won with 368.45 points.

Arizona vs. Auburn
Heading into this evening, Arizona grabbed seven big final spots and five berths in consolation heats, while Auburn earned a pair of championship heat lanes and five in the small finals. The question becomes whether Arizona can build up enough of a lead to withstand the patented Auburn final-day onslaught shouldered by its vaunted distance freestyle corps.

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