March 2, 2008
Pittsburgh, Pa. - With invitations to NCAA Championships set to go out later this week, two more members of the women's swimming team punched their automatic tickets to NCAA's this past weekend as they swam NCAA `A' automatic qualifying times in their respective events at the ECAC Championships that were held in Pittsburgh, Pa. this weekend at the University of Pittsburgh.
Clare Clemens and Kaitlyn Ferguson became the ninth and 10th members of the Nittany Lion women's swimming team to automatically qualify for NCAA's with an NCAA `A' time. Both will make their first career appearances at NCAA's later this month. Karie Haglund, meanwhile, swam her fastest time of the year in the 200 fly and lowered her previous NCAA `B' time by .13 of a second. Her time is now just .25 of a second off the `A' automatic qualifying time, putting her in good position to earn an NCAA invite off her provisional time.
Clemens and Haglund had been scheduled to both swim in the 400 IM. Instead, Clemens concentrated on the 200 breaststroke and Haglund on the 200 butterfly. In the morning prelims on Sunday, Clemens finished first in an NCAA `A' time of 2:13.65, well under the 2:14.19 `A' standard for the 200 breast. She did not swim in the finals. Haglund swam her best time of 1:59.24 in the morning prelims, which set a pool record at Pitt's Trees Pool and also set a new ECAC meet record. She then came back in the finals and swam a slower time of 2:00.37 to win the event.
Earlier in the weekend, on Saturday, Ferguson swam to her first career NCAA `A' time, putting up the time of :54.35 to finish first in the prelims and get an `A' time just .03 under the standard of :54.38. Her swim also set a pool record at Trees Pool as well as an ECAC record. She also did not swim in the finals, nor did she swim in the 200 back on Sunday as she had been scheduled to do.
The list of automatic NCAA qualifiers for the Penn State women now includes Clare Clemens, Kaitlyn Ferguson, Abby Hoisington, Caitlin Meehan, Kailey Morris, Michelle Myers, Kelly Nelson, Kaitlin O'Brien, Stephanie Roop and Daphne Skelos. Six other swimmers have NCAA `B' times in at least one individual event or relay event.