March 20, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.-- On Thursday, March 21 the No. 24 Penn State women's swimming and diving program will begin the final event of the season when the 2013 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships get underway inside the IU Natatorium and IUPUI Sports Complex. The Nittany Lions will compete in all five relays and watch as nine competitors make 25 swims to contest for individual national titles.
The nine individuals include Alyson Ackman (Montreal, Quebec), Merritt Krawczyk (Kingwood, Texas), Amy Modglin (Ft. Myers, Fla.), Mackenzie Powers (Sycamore, Ill.), Melissa Rodriguez (Chihuahua, Mexico), Gabi Shishkoff (Franklin, Mass.), Megan Siverling (Chester Springs, Pa.), Chelsea Weedman (Poway, Calif.) and Paige Whitmire (Lederach, Pa.). All nine of the individuals will make at least two swims at the national meet, with Ackman, Krawczyk, Modglin, Rodriguez, Shishkoff, Weedman and Whitmire all making three individual appearances.
Joining that group will be relay participants Carolyn Fittin (Sea Grit, N.J.), Kaitlin Jones (Midlothian, Va.), Caitlyn Karr (Reading, Pa.) and Katelyn Miller (Hershey, Pa.).
Ackman will look to cap her impressive rookie season with three solo swims and a pair of relay competitions at the NCAA Championships. The freshman will look to added All-America accolades to her Big Ten Championship in the 200 freestyle as she enters the season finale ranked 13th overall in the event. She will swim the 500 freestyle on the opening day of the championships and close her individual efforts with the 100 freestyle, ranking 30th and 31st, respectively. She will also take part in the 200 and 800 freestyle relay.
Krawczyk will be one of three seniors closing out their careers at the NCAA Championships. The school record holder in the 100 breaststroke and 200 individual medley, Krawczyk will look to add to her four career All-America efforts when she swims the 200 IM, 100 breaststroke and 20 0 butterfly. She will also take part in both the 200 and 400 medley relay swims, events she helped Penn State earn All-America honors in last season.
Modglin missed last season's championships due to illness, but the senior has plans of ending her career on a high note with three opportunities to add to her trophy case. A two-time All-American and school record holder in the 200 backstroke, Modglin will swim her signature event and compete in both the 200 and 400 individual medley.
Shishkoff and Weedman will both compete in the 200 butterfly, 200 IM and 400 IM at the national meet. Weedman will be making her third appearances at the NCAA Championships, while Shishkoff will also swim the 800 freestyle relay the first NCAA Championship event of her career.
Rodriguez, who arrived on campus in January, and Siverling will both be competing at the NCAA Championships for the first time. The school record holder in the 200 breaststroke, Rodriguez will swim that event, along with the 100 breaststroke and the 200 IM. Siverling will look to continue her steady performance in the distance events when she swims the 500 and 1,650 freestyle events.
In her third appearance at NCAA Championships, Powers will look to add an individual All-America honor to her two relay accolades from last season. She will swim her specialty, the 100 butterfly, an event in which she is the school record holder, along with contesting the field in the 100 backstroke.
The busiest Nittany Lion swimmer at the championships, Whitmire will look to add to her six All-American honors. The senior will make three individual swims and take part in four of the five relays. She is among the top-20 qualifiers in all three of her individual events, sitting 15th in the 100 backstroke, 17th in the 50 freestyle and is 20th in the 100 freestyle, the event she won the Big Ten Championship in. The senior will also swim the 200 & 400 medley relays and 200 & 400 freestyle relays.
The relay-only competitors will look like this; Fittin will swim the 200 medley relay and the 200 & 400 freestyle relays, Miller will be a part of the 200 freestyle relay, while Jones and Karr will both be a part of the 800 freestyle relay.
The three-day event will get underway on Thursday, March 21 at 11 a.m. with prelims of the 200 freestyle relay, 500 freestyle, 200IM, 50 freestyle and 400 medley relay. The finals of the aforementioned events will begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday.
--NITTANY LIONS--