Virginia Finishes Ninth in 800 Freestyle Relay to Open NCAA Championships
AUSTIN, Texas.- The Virginia women’s swimming and diving team concluded the opening day of the NCAA Championships on Wednesday (March 20) at the Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center with a ninth-place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay.
“It was a good start for our ladies tonight, putting some points on the board in the first event,” head coach Todd DeSorbo said. “It’s good to get one event under our belts to set up the rest of the meet. It should be a tight battle the rest of the way. I’m excited to see how we respond with the early start tomorrow.”
The 800-yard freestyle relay team of junior Morgan Hill (Olney, Md.), sophomore Paige Madden (Mobile, Ala.), redshirt junior Megan Moroney (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) and senior Eryn Eddy (Loveland, Colo.) recorded a time of 6:57.77 to finish ninth in the event.
Hill opened the race with a 200-yard freestyle time of 1:44.51 as Madden swam the second leg in a time of 1:42.90. Moroney followed, recording a time of 1:45.11, while Eddy swam anchor for the relay, capturing a time 1:45.25.
The four UVA swimmers earned All-America Honorable Mention honors for their performance in the event.
The 800-yard freestyle relay was the only event of the day as the Cavaliers conclude day one in ninth place in the team standings with 18 points. Stanford leads the field after capturing the national title in the event. The Cardinal have 40 points, while California is in second with 34 points and USC is in third place with 32 points.
Virginia will return to action tomorrow as the team competes in the prelims for the 200-yard freestyle relay, 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard individual medley, 50-yard freestyle and 400-yard medley relay at 10 a.m. ET. The 1m dive will begin at 12:30 p.m.