Feb. 21, 2008
Updated NCAA Qualifier List (pdf)
Columbus, Ohio - The Penn State women's swimming and diving team is in third place after the first day of the Big Ten Women's Swimming and Diving Championships. The Nittany Lions have 139 points and lead fourth place Northwestern by six points. Michigan leads the championships with 182 points after the first day while Minnesota is in a close second with 177.5 points.
Kelly Nelson led the way for the Nittany Lions on Thursday night with a third place finish in the 500 freestyle. Kaitlin O'Brien and Michelle Myers each placed fourth in their respective events, O'Brien in the 200 IM and Myers in the 50 free. Daphne Skelos became the sixth different Penn State swimmer to qualify for NCAA Championships this year as she swam a new NCAA `A' time in the 200 IM as she finished seventh.
Overall, on the first day of Big Ten Championships, the Nittany Lions swam to four new NCAA `B' times, lowered and improved six previous `B' times, and also swam to two new NCAA `A' times.
Nelson was one of four Penn State swimmers to place in the top 16 and pick up points in the 500 free as she finished the finals in 4:43.54, touching the wall ahead of the fourth place finisher by just .02 of a second and knocking .09 of a second off her NCAA `A' cut from the morning prelims. Kailey Morris finished eighth. In the consolation final, Sarah Baker took 10th place in 4:48.30 while Stephanie Roop knocked almost another second off her prelim time to improve her NCAA `B' cut a little bit more, placing 15th in 4:49.62.
Kailey Morris placed eighth in the 500 free, improving her finish by two spots over last year. |
In the 200 IM, O'Brien touched the wall in 1:59.72, shaving .52 of a second off her morning prelim time but still short of her career best and school record time of 1:58.88 that she swam earlier this year. After improving her best time of the year by over two second in the morning prelims, Skelos improved by over another half second in the finals as she finished seventh in 2:00.14, good for the 10th NCAA `A' cut of the year for the Nittany Lions.
Three Nittany Lions finished in the consolation finals of the 200 IM to pick up points for Penn State. Karie Haglund finished 12th in 2:02.38 while Clare Clemens finished 15th and Abby Hoisington 16th.
After finishing fourth in the morning prelims of the 50 free, Michelle Myers duplicated the finish in the finals, finishing in :22.85, just .03 of a second in front of the fifth place finisher. Lindsey DeForrest also finished in the points, taking 14th in :23.28 after swimming her fastest time of the year of :23.09 in the prelims to earn her first NCAA `B' cut of the year.
Lindsey DeForrest finished 14th in the 50 free, her first points scored in her career at Big Ten's. |
Penn State's relay teams also did well, swimming their best times of the year to date as they both finished in fifth place. The 200 free relay team of Myers, DeForrest, Molly Crispell and Baker posted a new NCAA `B' time of 1:31.71, just .70 of a second off an `A' automatic qualifying time. The 400 medley relay team of Myers, Caitlin Meehan, Nelson and Crispell lowered their previous NCAA `B' cut by finishing in 3:40.64.
The two divers competing on the one-meter springboard did not finish in the scoring. Courtney Adlam placed 27th while Ilana Zeises placed 29th.
Tomorrow's schedule of events include the 400 IM and 100 breaststroke, which Penn State has the two defending Big Ten individual champions in. O'Brien is a two-time defending champ in the 400 IM while Lyndsey Smith won the 100 breast last year as a freshman. Relays to be contested tomorrow include the 200 medley and the 800 free, which is arguably Penn State's best relay event this year. Live results of all the action are available here.