Ten Women Swimmers Qualify for Ncaa Championship
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March 10, 1998
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Ten members of the University of Virginia women’s swimming and diving team have qualified to compete at the NCAA Championship, to be held in Minneapolis, Minn., from Mar. 19-21. The 25th-ranked Cavaliers, who captured first place at the ACC Championship earlier this season, have qualified more swimmers this year than ever before in school history. Virginia will have the sixth-most swimmers competing in the meet, out of all NCAA Division I schools.
Virginia has a very strong team in the sprint freestyle events, with Rebecca Cronk (Charlottesville, Va.), Julie Gehm (Richmond, Va.), Meghan Iffland (Wilmington, Del.), Meghan McCubbins (Richmond, Va.) and Emily Trakas (Herndon, Va.) all scheduled to compete in the 50 yard freestyle and the 100 yard freestyle. Cronk holds the school record in the 50 free with her time of 23.00 at the ACC Championship, while McCubbins has the second-fastest times in school history in both the 50 free and 100 free. In addition to swimming the sprint freestyle events, Iffland will take part in the 100 yard backstroke, McCubbins will swim in the 100 yard butterfly and Trakas will participate in the 200 yard freestyle.
A number of Cavaliers swimmers will also take part in the distance freestyle events. Trakas will be joined by Laura Sullivan (Sarasota, Fla.) in the 200 free, while Sullivan, Emily Carrig (Richmond, Va.) and Sharon Riedlinger (Laurel, Md.) will all swim in the 500 yard freestyle. Riedlinger will also take part in the 1,650 yard freestyle and Carrig will swim in the 200 yard butterfly, an event in which she holds the school record (2:00.10) and has won two ACC Championships.
Virginia also has a pair of top swimmers in the breaststroke, as Kori Forster (New Orleans, La.) will swim the 100 yard breaststroke and Lindsey Schubert (Fresno, Calif.) will take part in both the 100 and 200 yard breaststroke. Schubert set school records in both the 100 breast (1:03.94) and 200 breast (2:15.85) this season, while winning the ACC title in the 200 breast. Forster, who won the ACC title in the 100 breast this season, will also take part in the 100 fly.
In addition to the individual events, Virginia will field a number of top relay teams at NCAAs. The 200 yard freestyle relay team of Cronk, Gehm, Iffland and McCubbins took first at the ACC Championship and set a school record with a time of 1:32.04, as did the 400 yard freestyle relay team of Trakas, Iffland, Cronk and McCubbins in a time of 3:20.76. A third ACC relay title was won by the 800 yard freestyle relay team of Cronk, Sullivan, Trakas and Carrig.
The Cavaliers medley relay teams should also preform well, as they both set new school records this season. Iffland, Schubert, Forster and Cronk teamed up to break the school record in the 200 yard medley relay (1:42.77), while Iffland, Schubert, McCubbins and Trakas set a new UVa record in the 400 medley relay (3:43.48).