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COLLEGE STATION, Texas The Virginia women’s swimming team continued competition Friday at the 2009 NCAA Championships with preliminaries in the 200 medley relay, 400 individual medley, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke and 100 backstroke. The event, which is being held at the Student Rec Center Natatorium on Texas A&M’s campus, runs through Saturday.
Junior Mei Christensen secured a spot in the finals tonight after placing seventh in the prelims of the 100 back, clocking a time of 51.99. Teammate Lauren Smart, competing in her first NCAA Championships, went on to finished 24th in the event with a mark of 53.15.
Virginia’s 200 medley relay team of Christensen, Katherine McDonnell, Smart and Kristen Wallace earned a spot in the consolation finals tonight with a 10th-place finish in the preliminaries. The Cavaliers finished with a time of 1:38.38.
“We really wanted that 200 medley relay to be in the finals and our failure to do so means we have to come out strong tonight and hopefully win the consolation,” Virginia head coach Mark Bernardino said.
Individually, Claire Crippen will also be swimming in the consolation finals of the 400 individual medley after finishing 14th with a time of 4:09.54. Teammate Liz Shaw placed 23rd in the event, touching in 4:11.92.
In the 100 butterfly, Megan Evo placed 29th overall with a time of 52.97. Jen Narum (1:46.70) and Jenna Harris (1:47.50) finished 30th and 40th, respectively, in the 200 freestyle. Katherine McDonnell was 36th in the 100 breaststroke (1:01.61) and Ellie Freeman was 42nd (1:02.14).
“The 800 free relay needs to come up huge tonight and hopefully repair some of those points (from the 200 medley relay),” Bernardino said. “We had a nice first day, in striking distance of the top-10, so we need to have a great night and a really strong swim in the preliminaries tomorrow.”
Finals are set to begin at 7 p.m. central time (6 p.m. eastern). Live coverage of the 2009 Women’s NCAA Championships can be found by clicking here.