Virginia's White Earns First-Team All-America Honors In 100 Backstroke At Women's NCAA Championships

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March 19, 2004

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – University of Virginia second-year Brielle White (Philadelphia, Pa./Springside School) finished fourth in the championship final of the 100-meter backstroke Friday (March 19) to earn first-team All-America honors at the 2004 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, which are being held at Texas A&M’s Student Rec Center Natatorium.

After 14 events, UVa is tied for 26th place with 16 points. Auburn leads the competition with 399 points, while Georgia (278) has a slight lead over Arizona (261) for second place. California is in fourth place with 179.5 points and Florida is fifth with 171 points.

White, who was an honorable mention All-American in the 100 backstroke at the 2003 NCAA Championships with a 12th-place finish, clocked a time of 59.80 to capture fourth place and earn first-team All-America honors. White entered the championship final as the seventh seed with a preliminaries time of 1:00.08 and moved up three places to fourth with her time of 59.80.

Virginia also competed in the 800-meter freestyle relay and finished 17th in the timed final with a time of 8:10.00. Second-year Rachael Burke (Bethesda, Md./Good Counsel), first-year Kimi Kelly (Mount Vernon, N.Y./Ursuline School), fourth-year Amy Baly (Atlanta, Ga./Marist School) and first-year Rory Schmidt (Phoenix, Ariz./Arcadia) swam legs on the relay that missed honorable mention All-America honors by one place.

The Cavaliers had several swimmers compete during the morning prelims who did not advance to the evening session.

In the 200-meter medley relay, the team of White, first-year Jenny Steiner (Lawrenceville, N.J./Lawrence), fourth-year Cynthia Roller (Herndon, Va./Herndon), and Kelly joined forces to clock a time of 1:55.65 and finish 21st. Steiner also competed in the 100-meter breaststroke, finishing 36th in a time of 1:12.89. Roller placed 22nd in the 100-meter butterfly. Roller’s time of 1:00.94 helped move up four spots from her initial seed of 26th.

Three other Cavaliers competed in preliminaries Friday morning. Baly swam in the 400-meter individual medley where she finished 37th with a time of 4:49.30. Schmidt placed 43rd in the 200-meter freestyle (2:02.05), while Burke also swam in the 200-meter freestyle, finishing in a time of 2:02.44 for 51st place.

The 2004 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships conclude Saturday (March 20). Preliminaries begin at 11:00 a.m. Central Time with finals commencing at 7:00 p.m. Central Time.