{"id":525058,"date":"2023-03-18T08:36:05","date_gmt":"2023-03-18T15:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=525058"},"modified":"2023-03-18T08:36:05","modified_gmt":"2023-03-18T15:36:05","slug":"ncaa-womens-championships-texas-dominates-with-1-2-4-seeds-in-200-butterfly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ncaa-womens-championships-texas-dominates-with-1-2-4-seeds-in-200-butterfly\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Women’s Championships: Texas Dominates with 1-2-4 Seeds in 200 Butterfly"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2023 NCAA Division I Women’s Championships continued with the prelims of the 200 butterfly.<\/p>\n

Defending NCAA champion Alex Walsh enters as the favorite, though she wasn’t seeded in the circle heats.<\/p>\n

The rest of the field was packed with some interesting possibilities, most from Texas. Emma Sticklen, Kelly Pash<\/strong> and Dakota Luther<\/strong> were the top three seeds going into the meet.<\/p>\n

Walsh was in heat four of seven, swimming in lane seven. She was out fast in a 52.78 and continued to pull away from the field and touched in 1:52.05.<\/p>\n

Luther was the first Texas swimmer up in the circle heats. She started strong and pulled away with a strong swim in 1:51.91.<\/p>\n

Next, it was Pash. She wasn’t quite as fast as Luther, but held off the swimmers in her heat to get to the wall in 1:52.73.<\/p>\n

In the final heat, it was Sticklen pulling away from the field to touch in 1:51.71.<\/p>\n

That leaves the Longhorns with the 1-2-4 seeds heading into finals.<\/p>\n

Sticklen took the top seed in 1:51.71, just two tenths ahead of Luther (1:51.91).<\/p>\n

Defending champion Walsh took the third seed in 1:52.05, ahead of Pash (1:52.73), who was fourth.<\/p>\n

Arizona State senior Lindsay Loone<\/strong>y took the fifth seed in 1:53.19, followed by Louisville senior Abby Hay<\/strong> (1:53.21), Virginia junior Abby Harter<\/strong> (1:53.28) and Stanford freshman Charlotte Hook<\/strong> (1:53.86).<\/p>\n

The Longhorns have the chance to score some major points and if the trio swims its best, would even have a chance to go 1-2-3, a rare feat in NCAA swimming.<\/p>\n

Of course, Walsh and the rest of the field will have something to say about that.<\/p>\n