{"id":525048,"date":"2023-03-18T07:31:58","date_gmt":"2023-03-18T14:31:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=525048"},"modified":"2023-03-18T07:31:58","modified_gmt":"2023-03-18T14:31:58","slug":"ncaa-womens-championships-claire-curzan-breaks-150-to-lead-200-back-prelims-rhyan-white-misses-a-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ncaa-womens-championships-claire-curzan-breaks-150-to-lead-200-back-prelims-rhyan-white-misses-a-final\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Women’s Championships: Claire Curzan Breaks 1:50 to Lead 200 Back Prelims; Rhyan White Misses A-Final"},"content":{"rendered":"

NCAA Women’s Championships: Claire Curzan Breaks 1:50 to Lead 200 Back Prelims; Rhyan White Misses A-Final<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stanford’s\u00a0Claire Curzan<\/strong> has flown somewhat under the radar at her first NCAA Championships, mostly thanks to record-smashing performances in her first two individual events. Curzan placed fourth in the 100 butterfly final as three swimmers got into the 48-second range while\u00a0Kate Douglass<\/strong> and\u00a0Maggie Mac Neil<\/strong> both smashed the NCAA record, and then Curzan took third in the 100 backstroke behind\u00a0Gretchen Walsh’s<\/strong> NCAA record of 48.26.<\/p>\n

But Curzan has posted impressive results in the 200 back all season, including a time of 1:47.43 at the Pac-12 Championships last month that was within three tenths of the fastest time ever and ranks her fourth all-time behind\u00a0Regan Smith<\/strong>,\u00a0Beata Nelson<\/strong> and\u00a0Kathleen Baker<\/strong>. Now, Curzan enters the NCAA final as the favorite after swimming a time of 1:49.48 to win the final heat. Curzan was flying for the first 150 yards, flipping in 1:20.98 with 50 to go, and although she slowed slightly at the end, she comfortably held off Tennessee’s\u00a0Josephine Fuller<\/strong> to take the win. Fuller ended up touching at 1:50.12 for the third-best time of the morning.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin’s\u00a0Phoebe Bacon<\/strong> was only seeded eighth entering the event after she skipped the event at the Big Ten Championships, but she blasted a time of 1:50.03 to lead the way in the second-to-last heat, and that time was good enough for the second-best time of the morning behind Curzan. Cal’s\u00a0Isabelle Stadden<\/strong> (1:50.44) and NC State’s\u00a0Kennedy Noble<\/strong> (1:50.88) also swam 1:50s in that heat, with those times good enough for fourth and fifth overall, respectively.<\/p>\n

In the first of the seeded heats, NC State’s Emma Muzzy<\/strong> held off Texas’\u00a0Olivia Bray<\/strong> for the win, 1:51.00 to 1:51.18, but behind them, there was a surprising result as Alabama’s Rhyan White<\/strong> fell to third place in 1:52.70. White, the World Championships bronze medalist in the 200-meter back, is the eighth-fastest performer in history at 1:48.06, but she has not approached that form in several years. White ended up qualifying for the B-final in the 15th spot.<\/p>\n

Virginia’s Reilly Tiltmann<\/strong> narrowly held off Indiana’s\u00a0Anna Peplowski<\/strong> in the final heat to earn the last spot in the A-final, 1:51.23 to 1:51.32. Tiltmann joins Bacon, Stadden and Muzzy in returning to the A-final from last season while Stanford’s\u00a0Lucie Nordmann<\/strong> ended up 14th (1:52.54) and Virginia Tech’s\u00a0Emma Atkinson<\/strong> fell to a tie for 20th (1:53.21).<\/p>\n