INDIANAPOLIS — It's been a pretty good decade for the Badgers in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
Wisconsin senior Chase Kinney, sophomore Emmy Sehmann, sophomore Jess Unicomb and junior Marissa Berg turned in an eighth-place finish in the event Thursday at the NCAA championships, extending a fantastic run by giving UW its 10th-consecutive top-10 finish in the event.
The Badgers' quartet came home with All-America honors after swimming a time of 1 minute, 28.01 seconds in the finals at the IU Natatorium. Wisconsin had logged the seventh-fastest time in the morning preliminary session, at 1:27.88.
California won the title in an American record time of 1:25.59.
"We've got a little bit of experience in this relay and we tend to do pretty well in the 200 free relay, historically," UW head coach Whitney Hite said. "It's a group of girls that really fight. They've trained hard. They've done all the right things all year and it's just nice for them to be able to be All-Americans, and they earned it."
Individually, Kinney and fellow senior Danielle Valley saved their best for last. Both raced well past their seedings in Thursday morning's preliminary round to earn prime placings in the final -- and then kept the momentum going with strong finishes.
"They're savvy veterans," Hite said of Kinney and Valley. "Danielle, in particular, is one of the toughest swimmers I've ever coached and she just quietly goes out there and just fights for everything. I've never seen her quit on anything."
Valley earned All-America laurels for the second-consecutive season with an impressive seventh-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle in 4:38.31 after entering the meet seeded 14th. Valley, who also finished seventh in the 1650 free at last year's NCAA meet, became the third swimmer in school history to earn All-America honors in the 500 free, joining Ellen Stonebraker and Carly Piper.
Kinney, who was seeded 26th in the event, raced her way into the consolation final with an outstanding swim of 21.99 in the prelims and then capped her night with a 16th-place finish in 22.01. The performance earned Kinney second-team All-America honors for a second straight year.
"My goal was to score at the meet, so I was pretty pumped to go 21 (seconds) this morning," Kinney said. "I've wanted to go 21 all season, so that was cool. I was just happy to score."
The Badgers narrowly missed a finals berth in the 400 medley relay, with the team of freshman Beata Nelson, senior Maria Carlson, senior Dana Grindall and Kinney logging a time of 3:32.78 to take 17th place in the morning prelims.
Sophomore Cierra Runge, who is battling an illness, fought her way to a 25th-place finish in the prelims of the 500 free in 4:41.38 after entering the meet seeded fifth.
"It speaks to the type of person that she is, her character," Hite said. "I think that she was most disappointed that she felt like she let her team down. It wasn't about her -- she didn't want to swim fast for herself, she wanted to swim fast for Wisconsin.
"She's going to bounce back. She's tough."
Unicomb also swam in the 200 individual medley, finishing 35th in 1:58.94.
