{"id":500060,"date":"2022-03-18T15:51:56","date_gmt":"2022-03-18T22:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=500060"},"modified":"2022-03-18T20:00:25","modified_gmt":"2022-03-19T03:00:25","slug":"ncaa-womens-championships-taylor-ruck-wins-duel-with-isabel-ivey-in-200-free-lia-thomas-finishes-fifth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ncaa-womens-championships-taylor-ruck-wins-duel-with-isabel-ivey-in-200-free-lia-thomas-finishes-fifth\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Women’s Championships: Taylor Ruck Wins Duel With Isabel Ivey in 200 Free; Lia Thomas Finishes Fifth"},"content":{"rendered":"

NCAA Women’s Championships: Taylor Ruck Wins Duel With Isabel Ivey in 200 Free; Lia Thomas Finishes Fifth<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the focus on transgender swimmer\u00a0Lia Thomas<\/strong> aiming to add the 200 freestyle NCAA title to the 500 free title she won Thursday, but Stanford’s\u00a0Taylor Ruck<\/strong> had other plans. The two-time Olympian for Canada who returned to Stanford this season after a two-year hiatus was the leader from the start, and even though Cal’s\u00a0Isabel Ivey<\/strong> stayed close to Ruck for the entire race, she could never get past Ruck.<\/p>\n

Ruck finished in 1:41.12, just ahead of Ivey’s 1:41.59. This was Ruck’s first individual NCAA title, and immediately after the race, she was mobbed by a group of her Stanford teammates behind the blocks as she climbed out of the pool. Ruck was less than a second off her best time of 1:40.37, which ties her with former Stanford star\u00a0Simone Manuel<\/strong> as the fourth-fastest swimmer in history.<\/p>\n

“It was quite the few minutes,” Ruck said. “I was pretty nervous before, like every race. I just tried to think of what I did in prelims and try to top it. I tried to do my race strategy, do my breathing before and try not to let the nerves overcome me. And then just race my race. I think that was one of my favorites races I\u2019ve ever done, just with the crowd and my teammates after hugging me. It\u2019s going in the memory books.”<\/p>\n

Third went to Texas’ Kelly Pash<\/strong> in 1:42.38, matching her finish from last year despite swimming almost a second faster, and Stanford freshman Lillie Nordmann<\/strong> took fourth in 1:42.63 after swimming a huge best time in prelims just to qualify for the final.<\/p>\n

Thomas, meanwhile, finished tied fifth with Kentucky’s Riley Gaines<\/strong> in 1:43.40, well off her prelims time of 1:42.09 and her season-best mark of 1:41.93. Thomas was in seventh place at the halfway point, but she has been accustomed to taking races out slowly before turning on the gas at the end. Her 100-yard split of 50.34 was actually much quicker than her halfway time of 50.87 in prelims. But after Thomas split 25-mid efforts on the third and fourth 50s in prelims, she was almost a second slower on each of those splits in the final.<\/p>\n

The Penn senior managed to pass USC’s Laticia Transom<\/strong> and pull even with Gaines on the last 50, but it was not nearly enough to close the massive gap that Ruck and Ivey had built on the field over the first 150 yards.<\/p>\n

Asked about racing Thomas amid the ongoing controversy about her inclusion at the NCAA Championships, Ruck handled the question deftly.<\/p>\n

“Honestly, I just came into this meet just wanting to focus on my own performances,” Ruck said. “I know there is a bit of chatter about Lia being here. Usually, I just try to zone everything out and focus on what I can do to be the best I can be every day. Coming into this, I was just thinking, \u2018Competition is competition.\u2019 I was just excited to race someone who\u2019s really fast.”<\/p>\n