New Records Set At First Day of NCAA Championships

Arizona leads team totals with 168 points after first day of action

March 8, 2007

By Doug Vose

Special to CSTV.com

 

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - The 2007 NCAA Championships started with a bang on Thursday night in Minneapolis. The evening session saw NCAA and American records broken in both relay events held on the Championships' first day.

 

California set the mark in the 400 medley relay (3:30.18) and Arizona took the 200 freestyle relay (1:27.23). Arizona (168 points) leads the team totals after the first day of competition, followed closely by Auburn (155 points) and Stanford (123.5 points).

 

By the conclusion of the meet's first event, it was clear that the Dorothy L. Sheppard Pool on the campus of the University of Minnesota is going to yield some record-breaking performances.

 

The Arizona Wildcats' foursome of Lara Jackson, Lacey Nymeyer, Anna Turner and Lindsey Kelly set the tone for a fast session, capturing the 200 freestyle relay and smashed American and NCAA records turning in an astounding 1:27.23. The mark bested the previous American record, set by Arizona at last year's Championships, by nearly seven tenths of a second.

 

Although Georgia's Kara Lynn Joyce led off the Bulldogs' relay in 21.69, a mark that only narrowly missed breaking her own 50 freestyle American record (21.63), the Wildcats were able to chase down the Bulldogs and hold off morning leader Michigan to defend their relay crown. 

 

"To look up at the end of the race and see that's what had happened is a feeling you're going to remember forever," Arizona anchor swimmer Kelly said. "It was a great experience. It is a great feeling for the team and it sets the tone for the rest of the meet, not just the night. It gets everyone excited. This win was a team effort. It was a great win not just for one person, but for everybody."

 

Auburn dominated the next event, the 500 freestyle, scoring 54 team points.  The Tigers were led by senior Adrienne Binder who won the event in 4:36.96, bettering her morning time by nearly four seconds and shaving more than three seconds off her lifetime best. It was Binder's first NCAA championship.

 

"I feel like that swim was a longtime coming, and I am just really excited that I could actually get that swim my senior year," Binder said. "Right now we are focusing on having good swims. With those good swims come the points, so we are trying to not pay too much attention to the points right now and just swim our best."

 

The Tigers were also aided in the 500 freestyle by senior Hayley Peirsol (4th, 4:41.96), freshman Maggie Bird (7th, 4:42.64) and sophomore Chelsea Haser (10th, 4:43.38). Following the 500 freestyle, the Tigers enjoyed a 33-point lead over second place Arizona.

 

Arizona bounced back one event later in the 200 IM, buoyed by senior Whitney Myers who defended her title and finished in 1:54.89.  It was Myers' third individual NCAA championship. She won the 400 IM at last year's championships to go along with her 200 IM victory. 

 

"I think I put a lot of pressure on myself. I have always been the underdog pushing my way up to the top and when you are there it is a different place," Myers said. "It definitely was a big relief and I would have liked to go a little bit faster, but a win is a win."

 

Arizona's depth in the 200 IM was evident as the Wildcats' Jenny Forster (13th, 1:59.18), Caitlin Iverson (12th, 1:59.09), Andrea Boritzke (10th, 1:58.52), Hailey Degolia (7th, 1:58.30) and Myers combined to score a whopping 48 points that helped the `Cats cut the Auburn deficit by more than half, narrowing the lead to 17 points after the 200 IM.

 

The substantial crowd was abuzz entering the championship heat of the 50 freestyle as Georgia's Joyce was attempting to capture her eighth individual and seventeenth overall NCAA title.

 

Arizona had sent a message earlier in the session that big time drops from their morning swims could be expected. In the championship heat, Joyce was flanked by a pair of Wildcats; Lara Jackson in lane 5 and Lacey Nymeyer in lane 3.

 

Joyce did not disappoint, as she edged Arizona's Jackson by .02 to capture the event in 21.71. 

 

"It is always nice to pull out a win and score as many points as possible for my team," Joyce said. "It is a more competitive event now than it has been in the last three years and I think that is great."

 

With her fourth 50-yard freestyle championship of her collegiate career, Joyce moves within two wins of matching Stanford's Jenny Thompson 19 career collegiate titles.  Because track & field and gymnastics are the only other two NCAA sports with comparable title possibilities, three more wins this weekend could make Joyce the most decorated athlete in collegiate athletics history.

 

"I don't really go into a meet like this going for specific records; I just try to help my team out as much as I can," Joyce said.  "To accomplish something like [breaking Thompson's record] is really great, but I am not going to be crushed if I do not get it. Jenny is such an accomplished swimmer and I have so much respect for her."

 

The efforts of Jackson and Nymeyer were not for naught; along with Anna Turner (15th, 22.71), Arizona collected 35 points in the event and vaulted ahead of Auburn, taking a 134-127 lead on the Tigers.

 

The 1-meter diving competition was a nail-biter that came down to the last dive. Stanford senior Cassidy Krug edged Indiana's Christina Loukas for the title, winning by less than a point. Krug finished 15th, 13th and 9th in the 1-meter competition at the NCAA Championships her first three years. Loukas delivered her second consecutive second place finish in the 1-meter event.

 

"It feels great to win," Krug said. "I could hardly breathe during the last round. It was so exciting, Christina is such a good diver and every dive was such a good contest."

 

The final event of the day saw the second American and NCAA records of the night fall, as California's Lauren Rodgers, Jessica Hardy, Dana Vollmer and Emily Silver won the 400 medley relay in 3:30.18.  The foursome bettered the previous NCAA mark, set by Auburn in 2003, by more than a full second.

 

Although Cal shattered the record, they were pushed to it by Arizona's squad, who also touched the wall ahead of the previous NCAA record mark in 3:30.89.

 

"I was pretty impressed with how we did and how we performed. I am very proud of our relay," California breaststroker Hardy said. "A great race is always more fun. I think having [Arizona] next to us helped us push and break the record. It was fun to race and I am glad they were there to race us."

 

The second place finish for the Wildcats, coupled with a sixth-place finish in the event by Auburn gives Arizona a 13-point lead over Auburn after the first day of competition.

 

"We are feeling like our team is really swimming the way we prepared to swim," Arizona head coach Frank Busch said. "I am really excited for the kids, they are doing a great job. Tomorrow is a critical day because it is such a tight battle right now. We will just have to have a great morning tomorrow."

 

The NCAA Championships reconvene tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. with preliminaries for the 200 medley relay, the 400 IM, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke and 100 backstroke events.