COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Entering the 2009 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships seeded 12th in a stacked 200-yard medley relay field, few envisioned the LSU women walking away with a top-eight finish and First-team All-America honors.
But the Lady Tigers’ foursome of Monica McJunkin, Jane Trepp, Katie Gilmore and Katherine Noland came through with arguably the biggest relay performance in head coach Adam Schmitt‘s tenure, swimming past perennial powerhouse programs Florida, California and Texas A&M to capture fifth-place in the event and earn First-team All-America recognition.
After securing the eighth-fastest time in the preliminaries with a then-school record mark of 1 minute, 37.73 seconds, the group turned it on in the evening finals with a blistering time of 1:36.88 to shatter the program mark and become one of four Southeastern Conference squads to place in the top-five.
Only six one-hundredths of a second separated the Lady Tigers from a top-three finish. Georgia emerged victorious with a time of 1:36.45.
The Lady Tigers also had some impressive efforts in individual racing with McJunkin leading the way in the 100 backstroke. The senior tied her school-record mark of 53.07 to take 22nd. Noland was the team’s highest finisher in the 100 fly, finishing in 34th with a personal best of 53.36. Gilmore and Trepp swam times of 54.00 and 54.39, respectively.
Noland also competed in the 200 freestyle and recorded a mark of 1:49.35, while Trepp also raced in the 100 breast, registering a time of 1:01.83.
Stanford’s Julia Smit broke NCAA, NCAA meet, American and U.S. Open records with her time of 4:00.56 in the 400 individual medley. The California duo of Dana Vollmer and Amanda Sims won the 200 free and 100 fly, respectively, while USC’s Rebecca Soni shattered her own NCAA record to top the field in the 100 breast with a mark of 58.36.
In addition, Gemma Spofforth of Florida successfully defended her NCAA Championship in the 100 backstroke, and Indiana’s Christina Loukas took the three-meter diving crown. California’s 800 freestyle relay concluded the evening in record-setting fashion with new NCAA, NCAA meet, American and U.S. Open marks in the event, 6:52.69.
The women’s squad will go after an All-America finish in the 400 freestyle relay in Saturday’s final session, and Noland and Gilmore will take part in the 100 free. The prelims will begin at 11 a.m. (CDT) with the finals following at 7 p.m. A link to live video and stats will be available on www.LSUsports.net.
2009 NCAA Championships — Schedule of Events
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Prelims ? 11 a.m.
200-yard Backstroke
100-yard Freestyle
200-yard Breaststroke
200-yard Butterfly
400-yard Freestyle Relay
Platform Diving (1:30 p.m.)
1,650-yard Freestyle (All but last heat of timed finals)
Finals ? 7 p.m.
1,650-yard Freestyle (Last heat of timed finals)
200-yard Backstroke
100-yard Freestyle
200-yard Breaststroke
200-yard Butterfly
Platform Diving
400-yard Freestyle Relay