BATON ROUGE — Senior Stephanie Smith and junior Jessica Wantz travel to College Station, Texas to compete at the 2004 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, held March 18-20.
Smith enters the final meet of her career as a three-time school record holder. The Metairie native shattered school records in the 500-, 1000- and 1650-yard freestyle in 2003, while making her second-consecutive NCAA Championship appearance.
“It should be a great competition for Stephanie,” said associate head coach Lars Jorgensen. “She has worked really hard this season, and it will be a great way to wrap up her career here.”
Smith is seeded 43rd in the 400-meter freestyle, the second event of Thursday’s preliminary morning session, which begins at 11 a.m. A finals session culminates the day’s events at 7 p.m. She will also go into the 1500-meter freestyle as the No. 23 seed. The 1500-meter will be the first event on Saturday morning.
Wantz enters the NCAA Championships after qualifying last weekend at the NCAA Zone B Diving Meet in Athens, Ga. The junior earned All-America honors at last year’s meet, placing fourth in the finals of the 3-meter. Wantz will take part in the 1-meter, which begins at 1 p.m. on Thursday. She will also look to repeat last year’s performance in the 3-meter on Friday at 1 p.m.
Thursday’s Schedule
(Preliminaries begin at 11 a.m., Finals sessions begin at 7 p.m.)
200-meter freestyle relay
400-meter freestyle
200-meter individual medley
50-meter freestyle
20-minute intermission
400-meter medley relay
One-meter diving