{"id":499939,"date":"2022-03-18T08:22:58","date_gmt":"2022-03-18T15:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=499939"},"modified":"2022-03-18T08:27:35","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T15:27:35","slug":"ncaa-womens-championships-taylor-ruck-takes-top-seed-in-200-free-heats-ahead-of-lia-thomas-isabel-ivey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ncaa-womens-championships-taylor-ruck-takes-top-seed-in-200-free-heats-ahead-of-lia-thomas-isabel-ivey\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Women’s Championships: Taylor Ruck Takes Top Seed in 200 Free Heats Ahead of Lia Thomas, Isabel Ivey"},"content":{"rendered":"

NCAA Women’s Championships: Taylor Ruck Takes Top Seed in 200 Free Heats Ahead of Lia Thomas, Isabel Ivey<\/strong><\/p>\n

It will be a showdown in the 200 freestyle final at the NCAA Women’s Championships after Stanford’s\u00a0Taylor Ruck<\/strong> narrowly earned the top seed over Penn’s Lia Thomas<\/strong> and Cal’s Isabel Ivey<\/strong> in a fast prelims. Ruck, who had the fastest split in the entire field on the 800 freestyle relay Wednesday night with her 1:40.49, was seeded only 19th coming into the meet, but she made quick work of her heat while winning in 1:41.89. Ruck has the quickest best time in the field by far with her 1:40.37 from the 2019 NCAA Championships, which ties her for fourth all-time.<\/p>\n

Thomas, meanwhile, entered the meet as the top seed, but she was almost a bodylength behind USC’s\u00a0Laticia-Leigh Transom<\/strong> at the halfway point of heat seven. But Thomas had another gear as she out-split Transom by more than eight tenths on the third 50 to pull into the lead. Thomas finished in 1:42.09, just off her time of 1:41.93 from December. Thomas is aiming to add to her Thursday title in the 500 free that made her the first transgender female swimmer to ever win an NCAA title in swimming.<\/p>\n

Third in prelims went to Cal’s Isabel Ivey<\/strong>, who held off Texas’ Kelly Pash<\/strong> to win heat five in 1:42.24. Ivey owns the top time in the nation in the 200 free this season with her 1:41.35 relay leadoff from Wednesday evening, so she figures to be in the mix with Ruck and Thomas in the final. The top three swimmers all swam faster than\u00a0Paige Madden’s\u00a0<\/strong>title-winning time of 1:42.35 from last season.<\/p>\n

Pash qualified fourth in 1:42.78, while Transom ended up fifth in 1:42.93. Stanford’s\u00a0Lillie Nordmann<\/strong> uncorked a huge best time of 1:43.02 to qualify sixth and join Ruck in the final, and Kentucky’s\u00a0Riley Gaines<\/strong> was seventh in 1:43.05. A third Stanford swimmer, Morgan Tankersley<\/strong>, qualified eighth in 1:43.53, barely edging out Virginia’s\u00a0Reilly Tiltmann\u00a0<\/strong>(1:43.59) for the last spot in the A-final.<\/p>\n