Virginia Women Begin NCAA Championships Wednesday

March 13, 2018

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia women’s swimming and diving team will open competition at the NCAA Championships on Wednesday (March 14) at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion in Columbus, Ohio. The four-day meet will begin on Wednesday with the 800-yard freestyle relay at 6 p.m.

Preliminary races will begin at 10 a.m. on Thursday and Saturday and at 9 a.m. on Friday. Finals will start on Thursday and Saturday at 6 p.m. and on Friday at 5 p.m.

The one-meter dive will begin at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, the 3-meter dive will begin at 11:30 a.m. on Friday and the platform will begin at 12:15 p.m. on Saturday.

ESPNU will broadcast the finals on Friday beginning 5 p.m. The final session on Saturday will be streamed on ESPN3 starting at 6 p.m. All other sessions including the preliminary races will be streamed on the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships microsite at www.ohiostatbuckeyes.com. Fans can watch a tape delay of the meet on ESPNU on March 25 at 4 p.m. Links to each day’s broadcast and live results can be accessed at VirginiaSports.com.

Virginia will send a program-record 19 competitors to the NCAA Championships, topping the previous record of 17 female swimmers in 2014. Twelve Cavaliers will compete in individual swimming events as seniors Caitlin Cooper (Atlanta, Ga.), Jennifer Marrkand (Westford, Mass.), Laine Reed (Austin, Texas) and Cece Williams (Tallahassee, Fla.), junior Eryn Eddy (Loveland, Colo.), redshirt sophomore Megan Moroney (Deerfield Beach, Fla.), sophomore Morgan Hill (Olney, Md.), and freshmen Erin Earley (Orange, Conn.), Paige Madden (Mobile, Ala.), Abby Richter (Henderson, Nev.), Emma Seiberlich (Audubon, Pa.) and Kyla Valls (Miami, Fla.) qualified for the meet. In diving, Virginia will be represented by three student-athletes as senior Corey Johnson (Olney, Md.), junior Kylie Towbin (New Canaan, Conn.) and sophomore Sydney Dusel (Naperville, Ill.) advanced from the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships.

The team will also travel senior Dina Rommel (East Amherst, N.Y.), junior Vivian Tafuto (Hummelstown, Pa.), sophomore Mary Claire Tansill (Bristow, Va.) and freshman Anna Pang (SINGAPORE) as relay alternates.

This is the 11th consecutive year UVA has qualified at least 10 student-athletes for the NCAA Championships and the 10th straight season all five relay teams have qualified.

Virginia enters the meet after capturing the program’s 10th ACC Championship in 11 years and 15th conference title in program history. The Cavaliers recorded two individual conference titles from Cooper in the 50-yard freestyle (21.54) and Madden in the 200-yard backstroke (1:51.81). Virginia also won the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:26.67), the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:09.45) and the 800-yard freestyle relay (6:55.77).

Cooper and Marrkand lead the team, making their fourth NCAA appearance. Cooper is a seven-time All-American, holding the sixth-fastest performance this year in the 50-yard freestyle and the 20th-best performance in the 100-yard freestyle (48.05), while Marrkand has earned All-America honors eight times and nationally ranks eighth in the 200-yard butterfly (1:53.55) and 12th in the 200-yard freestyle (1:43.85). Marrkand will also compete in the 500-yard freestyle.

Eddy will compete in her third NCAA Championship after posting the season’s 18th-best swim in the 200-yard freestyle (1:44.10). She earned an All-America honor last season in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Eddy will also compete in the 100-yard freestyle.

Hill ranks 19th in the 100-yard freestyle (48.02), earning her second trip to the national competition. The two-time All-American will also compete in the 50- and 200-yard freestyle.

Moroney ranks in the top 25 nationally in three events. She ranks 10th in the 200-yard freestyle (1:43.60), 21st in the 200-yard backstroke (1:52.60) and 24th in the 100-yard backstroke (52.17). She enters the national meet as a five-time All-American.

Madden and Reed will compete in their first NCAA Championships. Madden ranks 14th in the 200-yard backstroke (1:51.81) and 16th in the 200-yard freestyle (1:44.00), while Reed ranks 20th in the 50-yard freestyle (22.06). Additionally, Madden will compete in the 500-yard freestyle and Reed will compete in the 100-yard freestyle.

In the diving events, Dusel qualified for her second NCAA championships after earning a berth in all three events. She is joined by Towbin competing in the 3-meter and platform and Johnson competing in the platform.

Rounding out the meet, Earley will compete in the 200-yard backstroke, Richter will compete in the 200-yard individual medley and the 200-yard backstroke, Seiberlich will compete in the 200-yard backstroke, Valls will compete in the 200-yard freestyle and Williams will compete in the 1650-yard freestyle.

NCAA Championship Schedule with Virginia’s probable entries

Wednesday, March 14

800 freestyle relay- Virginia

Thursday, March 15

200 freestyle relay- Virginia
500 freestyle- Paige Madden, Jennifer Marrkand, Cece Williams
200 individual medley- Abby Richter
50 freestyle- Caitlin Cooper, Morgan Hill, Laine Reed, Kyla Valls
400 medley relay- Virginia
1-meter dive- Sydney Dusel

Friday, March 16

400 individual medley- Virginia
100 butterfly –
200 freestyle – Eryn Eddy, Morgan Hill, Paige Madden, Jennifer Marrkand, Megan Moroney, Kyla Valls
100 breaststroke
100 backstroke- Megan Moroney
200 medley relay- Virginia
3-meter dive- Sydney Dusel, Kylie Towbin

Saturday, March 17

200 backstroke- Erin Earley, Paige Madden, Megan Moroney, Abby Richter, Emma Seiberlich
100 freestyle- Caitlin Cooper, Eryn Eddy, Morgan Hill, Laine Reed
200 breaststroke-
200 butterfly- Jennifer Marrkand
400 freestyle relay- Virginia
Platform- Sydney Dusel, Corey Johnson, Kylie Towbin
1650 freestyle- Cece Williams