Student Life Archives

Scott Bressler

Washington University made an explosive appearance at the UAA Swimming and Diving Championships, capturing seven UAA titles.

The Lady Bears took second with 1,284 points and the men took fourth with 1,142 points. Wash. U. swimmers swam dozens of B cut or better times in scores of events.

“So many people got B cuts and lifetime bests,” said sophomore Jessie Lodewyk. “As soon as one person starts swimming fast, everyone does.”

Head coach Brad Shively and assistant coach Beth Whittle were named UAA Women’s Coaching Staff of the Year.

“It’s a great honor for our coaching staff,” said Whittle. “We owe it all to [the student-athletes].”

Diving coach Meg Dierkes picked up UAA Women’s Diving Coach of the Year accolades as well after senior Priya Srikanth, who was UAA Women’s Diver of the Year for her second year, captured the title in both the one-meter and three-meter diving events.

Srikanth’s 487.10 in the one-meter event demolished the previous UAA record of 430.65 and set a new Wash. U. record that eclipsed her previous record of 468.50. Her score of 444.10 in the three-meter also qualifies her for nationals.

Freshman David Chao was named UAA Men’s Rookie of the Year. Chao finished in the top ten of four events taking ninth in the 50-yard, tied for sixth in the 100-yard and took fourth in the 200-yard freestyle. “He really put together a great meet,” said Beyer.

Chao also swam in the first place finish by the men’s 800-yard freestyle A squad. The group, which also consisted of sophomores Brian Kushner, Alex Beyer and junior Kevin Leckey, set an SLT time of 6:50.66.

“We won it last year,” said Beyer. “That was our event.”

Classmate Michael Flanagan set an automatic NCAA qualifying time of 1:51.77 in the 200-yard fly in the preliminaries.

Sophomore Alex Beyer took first in the 500-yard freestyle with a personal best and an NCAA B-Cut time of 4:34.19 beating other swimmers by less than a second.

Senior Meredith Nordbrock had an impressive performance at her last UAA championship. Nordbrock took first in the 200 individual medley setting a new UAA record of 2:06.15. Her time automatically qualifies her for the NCAA Championships.

Nordbrock also set a new UAA record in the 100-yard backstroke of 57.98, which was also an automatic qualifying time in her first place finish.

Nordbrock was also part of the 800 women’s freestyle relay squad, which despite automatically qualifying for nationals with a time of 7:37.16, finished second to Emory.

Senior Katie Hodges, junior Kelly Kono and Lodewyk rounded out the team that set a new season best. The Wash. U. women’s A squad took first in the 200-yard medley relay with an NCAA B time of 1:48.39. The Lady Bears squad was composed of Nordbrock, senior Kristen Mann, Kono and freshman Claire Henderson.

“It was a really big surprise,” said Kono. “Claire Henderson and Kristen Mann both swam out of their minds.”

According to Kono, a swimmer with an A cut time in any event automatically qualifies for nationals in events where they have B cuts. For instance, Henderson who had a B cut time of 58.99 in the 100-yard backstroke will head off to nationals because of her relay time.

The UAA championships were a very emotional time. According to Lodewyk, senior Jennifer Yu had been trying for four years to beat 1:10 in the 100-yard breast stroke. Yu beat that by the barest of margins with a time of 1:09.99.

The Bears will next see action at the NCAA Women’s National Championships at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio from March 13-15.

“We’re excited,” said Kono. “We have a lot of work to do.”

This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.