{"id":524769,"date":"2023-03-17T08:17:55","date_gmt":"2023-03-17T15:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=524769"},"modified":"2023-03-17T08:20:16","modified_gmt":"2023-03-17T15:20:16","slug":"ncaa-womens-championships-taylor-ruck-rips-142-70-to-lead-tight-200-freestyle-prelims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ncaa-womens-championships-taylor-ruck-rips-142-70-to-lead-tight-200-freestyle-prelims\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Women’s Championships: Taylor Ruck Rips 1:42.70 to Lead Tight 200 Freestyle Prelims"},"content":{"rendered":"

NCAA Women’s Championships: Taylor Ruck Rips 1:42.70 to Lead Tight 200 Free Prelims<\/strong><\/p>\n

At her final collegiate meet,\u00a0Stanford’s\u00a0Taylor Ruck<\/strong> will be in pole position to defend the 200 freestyle title she earned last year. Ruck, who entered the meet with the fifth-best seed time, jumped out ahead of her heat and held off a strong finish from Virginia’s Aimee Canny<\/strong>. Ruck finished in 1:42.70, just ahead of Canny’s 1:42.97. Ruck is tied for fourth all-time in this event at 1:40.37, and she swam a time of 1:41.12 in winning the national title last year.<\/p>\n

The field will have a distinct international flavor with the top three seeds all from outside the United States. Canada’s Ruck and South Africa’s Canny will be joined by another Canadian, Tennessee’s Brooklyn Douthwright<\/strong>, after Douthwright swam a mark of 1:43.22 for the third-best time overall. Douthwright owns the top season-best mark in the field at 1:42.45. Indiana’s\u00a0Anna Peplowski<\/strong> finished just behind Douthwright in that heat at 1:43.27, which tied Stanford’s\u00a0Kayla Wilson<\/strong> for fourth overall.<\/p>\n

In the third of seven heats, Virginia’s\u00a0Maxine Parker<\/strong> made a huge jump up through the rankings. She entered with a seed time of 1:45.49, but she dropped down to 1:43.28 with a dominant effort. That held up for the sixth-best qualifying time overall. Texas A&M’s\u00a0Chloe Stepanek<\/strong> qualified seventh in 1:43.83, while\u00a0Louisville’s Paige Hetrick<\/strong> produced another sterling swim from outside the circle-seeded heats. Her time of 1:43.90 helped her comfortably win heat four, and because of that swim, Hetrick snuck into the A-final by one hundredth over Texas’\u00a0Kelly Pash<\/strong> (1:43.91).<\/p>\n

Pash was the third-place finisher in this event last season, and with the Stanford duo of\u00a0Lillie Nordmann\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Morgan Tankersley<\/strong> also missing the A-final, Ruck is the only returning top-eight finisher from last season. Tankersley ended up tying for 12th with NC State’s\u00a0Abbey Webb<\/strong> in 1:44.02 (Florida’s\u00a0Ekaterina Nikonova<\/strong> and Ohio State’s\u00a0Amy Fulmer<\/strong> both missed the A-final after going sub-1:44).<\/p>\n