March 21, 2014
NCAA Championships | Minneapolis, Minn. - University of Minnesota Aquatic Center | |
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.; March 20, 2014 - The Penn State women's swimming and diving program opened up the 2014 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships with two Nittany Lions registering personal-bests. The 400 medley relay squad posted the top finish of the day for PSU but barely missed out on making the finals, finishing 17th in the prelims.
The Nittany Lion quartet of Alyson Ackman (Montreal, Quebec), Melissa Rodriguez (Chihuahua, Mexico), Mackenzie Powers (Sycamore, Ill.) and Carolyn Fittin (Sea Girt, N.J.) clocked in at 3:34.87 in the 400 medley relay, placing 17th as missing the finals by just .79 second. The mark counted as the second best time of the season for team, which broke the program record in 3:33.27 at the Big Ten Championships earlier this season.
Ackman posted a career-best mark in the 100 backstroke as the leadoff swimmer in the relay, touching the wall in 52.45. The sophomore clipped .29 second off of her previous best split of 52.74 from the conference championships.
Ackman and Fittin joined Katelyn Miller (Hershey, Pa.) and Haley Sinatro (West Hartford, Conn.) in the 200 free relay to register a mark of 1:29.83 for 22nd place. The time is the second fastest of the 2013-14 campaign for the Lions, who reached in a season-best 1:29.51 at the conference meet.
Senior Gabi Shishkoff (Franklin, Mass.) turned in the top individual finish for Penn State, placing 30th in the 500 free with a time of 4:44.06. Junior Megan Siverling (Chester Springs, Pa.) and freshman Katelyn Sowinski (Severna Park, Md.) also swam in the 500 free, placing 33rd and 44th, respectively. Siverling touched the wall in a season-best 4:44.32 while Sowinski posted a mark of 4:46.24.
Katie Rowe (Glenville, N.Y.) notched a personal-record in her lone event of the day, clocking in at 1:58.33 in the 200 IM for 34th place. The sophomore chopped over three seconds off of her previous best time of 2:01.53 from earlier this season at the Texas Invitational.
Chelsea Weedman (Poway, Calif.) and Rodriguez competed in the 200 IM as well. Weedman finished 49th in 2:00.02 and Rodriguez touched the wall in 2:01.71 for 59th in the prelims.
The Blue and White return to the pool on Friday for the second day of the Championships. Day two kicks off at Noon (ET) with the prelims of the 200 medley relay, 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breaststroke, 100 backstroke, 3-meter diving and 800 free relay. The finals of the events are set for an 8 p.m. start.