Trio of Cavaliers Pick Up All-America Honors at NCAA Meet

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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A trio of Cavaliers earned All-America accolades as the second night of finals was held Friday at the 2010 NCAA Championships. The meet, which runs through Saturday, is being held at the Boilermaker Aquatic Center on the campus of Purdue University.

Through 14 events, Virginia holds eighth place with 110 points. Stanford leads the meet with 266.5 points, followed by Georgia (262.5) and Arizona (259.5).

Senior Mei Christensen earned the highest finish of her career with a fourth-place performance in the 100 back. She finished with a time of 52.12 in the event to tally the fourth individual All-America honor of her career.

Teammate Lauren Smart, a sophomore from Charlotte, N.C., picked up her first career individual All-American award, also in the 100 back. She finished eighth overall with a time of 52.64.

For the second consecutive day freshman Lauren Perdue recorded an All-America performance, finishing eighth in the 200 free. Perdue clocked a time of 1:45.68 in the event; she also was an All-American in the 50 free, held Thursday.

Junior Claire Crippen is an honorable mention All-American after moving up two spots from her prelim position to finish 10th in the 400 IM. She touched in 4:09.24, her fastest time this season. It was the third consecutive year Crippen has been named an honorable mention All-American in the event. She finished 14th in both 2008 and 2009 at the NCAA Championships.

“We had some nice individual swims but we came here to have a great team finish,” head coach Mark Bernardino said. “Individual performances reflect themselves in the team score and as a team we did not do what we came here to do tonight.”

The 800 free relay team of Kelly Flynn, Jenna Harris, Jen Narum and Kristen Moores also earned honorable mention All-America honors with a 16th-place finish. The Cavaliers finished with a time of 7:13.27 in the event.

Virginia’s first relay of the day, the 200 medley relay, was disqualified.

“In a sport that is decided by tenths and hundreds of seconds, mistakes are unforgiving,” Bernardino said. “The jump in the first relay took the life and momentum out of this team. We were faced with adversity and we did not respond, for the first time all year. It could be devastating to a team poised for a top-8 finish that will now have to fight for its life to hang on to a top-10 finish. There is no room for error at this level.”

The third and final day of the NCAA Championships will be held Saturday with preliminaries in the 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly, 1650 free and 400 free relay.

2010 Women’s NCAA Championships
Team Standings – Top 10
Through event 14