NCAA update: UW swims for third All-America relay
March 21, 2009 | Women's Swimming & Diving
The Wisconsin women's swimming team will close out the NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships Saturday with a chance to score its third All-America relay finish in as many days.
A school-record performance in the 400-yard freestyle relay during Saturday's morning preliminaries session has UW poised to make a run at its first top-10 team finish since 2006. The Badgers enter the meet's final session in 11th place.
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Finals begin at 7 p.m. at Texas A&M's Student Recreation Center Natatorium. Also, UW junior Gabby Maddalena will swim in the prelims of the 1,650-yard freestyle, which begin at 4:25 p.m.
In the 400 free relay, the quartet of freshman Beckie Thompson, sophomore Maggie Meyer, junior Rosie Morahan and sophomore Kelsey Gergen came up big to put the Badgers into the championship final with a school-record time of 3:15.13.
A dramatic improvement over the time of 3:17.36 that had UW seeded 16th entering the race, the Badgers' performance ranked seventh-fastest among the field and trimmed nearly 2 1/4 seconds off their previous school record.
Texas holds the top qualifying time at 3:12.19.
Freshman Ashley Wanland also can add to the Badgers' team score, as she qualified for the consolation final in the 200 breaststroke. Wanland narrowly missed a spot in the championship final, as she was ninth-fastest during the event prelims with a time of 2:09.50.
She was second-fastest in her heat and will swim for honorable mention All-America status in the consolation final after missing the cut for the championship section by just .17 seconds.
USC's Rebecca Soni holds the top qualifying time after clocking a new NCAA meet record time of 2:05.48.
Junior Libby Brooks also competed in the event for the Badgers, recording the 30th-fastest time in the prelims at 2:12.59.
Wanland, the reigning Big Ten Conference champion and league record-holder in the 200 breast, earned All-America honors by finishing third in the 100 breast and as part of UW 's runner-up effort in the 200 medley relay on Friday.
Also during the prelims session, junior Candice Peak finished 38th in the 200 backstroke, clocking in with a time of 1:56.40.
