Feb. 21, 2008
Columbus, Ohio - A total of 11 swimmers advanced to tonight's finals in three respective events as the Penn State women's swimming and diving team got off to a blazing start on the first day of the Big Ten women's swimming and diving championships. Four swimmers advanced to the finals of the 500 free while five Nittany Lions advanced to the finals of the 200 IM, the most of any school to advance to the finals in those two events. Two more made it to the finals of the 50 free.
The day started with Kelly Nelson putting up her first NCAA `A' cut of the year in the 500 free. Having already qualified for NCAA's with an `A' time in the 200 fly, Nelson finished third in the prelims with a time of 4:43.63. Kailey Morris also qualified for the `A' finals by swimming an NCAA `B' time of 4:46.34, her fastest time of the year in the 500, to finish seventh and lower her previous `B' cut by nearly two seconds. She is now less than a second off an `A' cut. Qualifying for the `B' finals in the 500 were Sarah Baker and Stephanie Roop. Baker lowered her previous `B' cut by over two seconds to 4:48.20 and placed 10th while Roop was 13th.
In the 200 IM prelims, Kaitlin O'Brien led the way with a sixth place finish in another NCAA `A' cut of 2:00.24, although it was not her fastest time of the year. Just behind her was Daphne Skelos in seventh at 2:00.74, which lowered her previous `B' cut by a little over two seconds. Three more Nittany Lions made the `B' finals, led by Karie Haglund, who came in 11th in 2:02.05, lowering her previous `B' cut. Clare Clemens finished 13th in 2:02.61, her first `B' cut of the year in the 200 IM, while Abby Hoisington finished 15th.
Sarah Baker lowered her previous best time of the year in the 500 free by over two seconds. |
Michelle Myers knocked .01 of a second off her best time of the year to finish fourth in the prelims of the 50 free in :22.75. Although she has already qualified for NCAA's with an `A' time in the 100 back, she is now just .13 of a second of an `A' time in the 50 free. Myers will swim in the `A' final while teammate Lindsey DeForrest will swim in the `B' final as she finished 13th to qualify for her first Big Ten finals in an individual event. She knocked nearly a full second off her previous best time of the year and swam to her first NCAA `B' cut of the year in an individual event, finishing in :23.09.
The prelims of the one-meter springboard diving are ongoing this afternoon. Tonight's finals will begin at 6:30 p.m. Live results of today's action as well as the entire Big Ten Championships are available by clicking here.
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