Women's Swimmers Make Waves at Texas, Take Second
December 07, 2002 | Women's Swimming & Diving
The Wisconsin women's swimming and diving team rounded out a terrific performance at the Texas Invitational with a second-place finish Saturday night. The No. 12 Badgers finished second behind No. 7 Texas and ahead of No. 5 USC and No. 8 Arizona. The Badgers conclude action at the Texas Invite with four new school records, NCAA consideration times in 20 events and automatic times in eight events.
'It was a dream meet for us,' coach Eric Hansen said. 'I think we've finally arrived.'
Carly Piper crushed the school and Big Ten record in the 1650 freestyle, swimming a NCAA A cut in 16:04.49, finishing second. She broke Ellen Stonebraker 's 1998 school and conference record of 16:11.42. Rebecca Johansson also swam a NCAA B cut in the 1650, finishing fifth (16:52.87).
'Carly Piper obliterated the women's school record and the Big Ten record by nearly seven seconds,' Hansen said. 'It was just one of those meets.'
Sarah McCauley picked up two automatic times for the second-straight day with A cuts in the 200 back and 100 free. In the 200 back, McCauley reset Betsy Hassebroek's 1999 1:58.81 school record with a second-place 1:57.30. Hassebroek finished ninth in the event with a NCAA consideration 2:00.61.
McCauley logged another UW record with a win in the 100 free (49.41). Jenny Lyman finished fourth in the event with a consolation time of 49.80. Both swimmers broke the old school mark held by Ellen Stonebraker (49.95).
'McCauley was probably the biggest force in the entire meet, ' Hansen said.
Adding consideration times to the Badgers' plate were also Sarah Hernandez in the 100 free and Emily Pisula and Amalia Sarnecki in the 200 breaststroke.
The divers faired well in an event that they must travel to Milwaukee once a week to train for. Frosh Megan Balkenbush took sixth (339.70) on the platform and KC Bunnell and Amanda Witte finished eighth and 12 th, respectively.
The Badgers' 400 free relay of McCauley, Lyman, Piper and Hassebroek qualified for the NCAAs with a 3:19.72, placing second.
'All in all I feel we've qualified nine men and nine women for the NCAAs,' Hansen said. 'Eighteen swimmers is by far the biggest team we've ever taken to NCAAs.'
The Badgers take a month off from competition and travel to Hawaii over winter break for intense training. They compete in the Rainbow Classic in January.
