By Jason Marsteller<\/p>\n
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, March 9. IN an exciting afternoon of swimming that featured some impressive performances, Arizona and Auburn continued to state their claims to the NCAA team title.<\/p>\n
Team Title Qualifiers<\/b>
\nIn the team title hunt, Arizona qualified seven up and six down, while Auburn pushed six swimmers into championship heats, while only picking up a pair of consolation swims.<\/p>\n
The typical nickel-and-dime depth-point parade that Auburn usually wins national championships with looks like it may be swinging Arizona's way. <\/p>\n
200 medley relay<\/b>
\nArizona clocked the fastest time as Andrea Boritzke, Annie Chandler, Lara Jackson and Lindsey Kelly touched in 1:37.57. California's foursome of Sherry Tsai, Jessica Hardy, Dana Vollmer and Emily Silver finished second in 1:37.98, while Auburn snared third with Rachel Goh, Kara Denby, Margo McCawley and Emily Kukors turning in a 1:38.34.<\/p>\n
Georgia (1:38.67), Texas A&M (1:38.90), Michigan (1:39.23), Stanford (1:39.25) and Texas (1:39.28) will join them in the championship heat.<\/p>\n
Indiana's Leila Vaziri recorded the fastest backstroke split with a 24.48 en route to Indiana's ninth-place time of 1:39.64, while Cal's Hardy posted the best breaststroke leg with a 26.98 split. Vollmer followed with a 23.15 for the quickest butterfly, before Georgia's Kara Lynn Joyce brought the Bulldogs' fourth-place finish home with a 21.72 anchor \u2013 the best of the day.<\/p>\n
400 IM<\/b>
\nPrinceton's Alicia Aemisegger registered the fastest time of the prelims with a time of 4:07.16, while Auburn secured big points in the team battle as Tigers Ava Ohlgren (4:08.36), Adrienne Binder (4:09.62) and Julie Stupp (4:09.76) went 2-3-4.<\/p>\n
The rest of the championship heat will be comprised of Stanford's Julia Smit (4:10.42), Arizona's Whitney Myers (4:10.70), Notre Dame's Katie Carroll (4:12.02) and California's Rachel Ridgeway (4:12.82).<\/p>\n
As for the Arizona\/Auburn race at the top, Arizona's Jenny Forster (4:15.15) and Caitlin Iversen (4:15.20) each cracked the top 16, while Auburn's Nanou Amardeilh (4:15.05) will join them in the consolation heat.<\/p>\n
100 fly<\/b>
\nCal's Dana Vollmer recorded a statement swim with pool-record time of 51.33 in prelims. Meanwhile, Tennessee's Christina Magnuson (52.56) and Arizona State's Caitlin Andrew (52.56) tied for second.<\/p>\n
UC-Irvine's Chelsea Nagata (52.73), Stanford's Elaine Breeden (52.79), Arizona's Ana Agy (52.83) and Kentucky's Heather Bradford (53.01) closed out the rest of the top seven. Meanwhile, Arizona's Hailey Degolia and Michigan's Margaret Kelly tied for the eighth qualifying spot with matching 53.03s to force a swim-off.<\/p>\n
Degolia came back in the swim-off to win 51.96 to 52.78 to make her way into the A final.<\/p>\n
No one from the Wildcats or Tigers made the small final.<\/p>\n
200 freestyle<\/b>
\nAuburn and Arizona each picked up a championship finalist as Tiger Emily Kukors touched in 1:43.96 for the top morning time, while Wildcat Lacey Nymeyer clocked a third-place 1:45.43. California's Erin Reilly split the difference with a second-place 1:44.40.<\/p>\n
Gardner Webb's Teresa Wilson (1:45.48), Michigan's Lindsey Smith (1:45.73), Florida's Caroline Burckle (1:45.75), Georgia's Claire Maust (1:45.80) and Texas A&M's Christine Marshall (1:46.26) will join them in the A final.<\/p>\n
Arizona will also pick up some nickel-and-dime points as Leone Vorster turned in a 15th-place 1:46.89.<\/p>\n
Notably, Georgia's Kara Lynn Joyce's quest to break Jenny Thompson's record of 19 total NCAA titles took a hit as she finished ninth in 1:46.46.<\/p>\n
100 breaststroke<\/b>
\nCal's Jessica Hardy came close to going sub-1-minute in prelims with a top-time of 1:00.19. Georgia's Kelly McNichols (1:00.36) and Southern California's Rebecca Soni (1:00.45) also finished second and third, respectively.<\/p>\n
Texas's Elizabeth Tinnon (1:00.55), Florida's Elle Weberg (1:00.68), Virginia Tech's Jessica Botzum (1:00.73), Arizona's Annie Chandler (1:00.74) and Florida State's Lauren Brick (1:00.84) each made the championship final.<\/p>\n
The Wildcats will also look forward to some B final points from Jessica Embick (12th\/1:01.52) and Jaquelyn Craft (13th\/1:01.54).<\/p>\n
100 backstroke<\/b>
\nThe 100 back will be a dogfight with team title implications as Arizona and Auburn both placed a pair in the top eight. Hailey Degolia of Arizona clocked the quickest time with a pool-record time of 52.66. Finishing close behind, Indiana's Leila Vaziri will look to give IU its first women's swimming NCAA title after touching in 52.88. Auburn's Rachel Goh will be breathing down their neck with a third-place time of 53.09.<\/p>\n
Other big final qualifiers include Arizona's Ana Agy (53.41), Stanford's Brooke Bishop (53.49), Auburn's Melissa Marik (53.56), Florida's Gemma Spofforth (53.63) and UCLA's Katie Arnold (53.67).<\/p>\n
Auburn and Arizona will also fight for consol points as Auburn's Margo McCawley (11th\/53.79) and Arizona's Andrea Boritzke (15th\/53.99) both made the top 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Jason Marsteller MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, March 9. IN an exciting afternoon of swimming that featured some impressive performances, Arizona and Auburn continued to state their claims to the NCAA team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n