Visit Swimming World's Event Landing Page for complete coverage of the meet.
AUSTIN, Texas, March 19. GEORGIA's Wendy Trott became just the fifth swimmer to win a trio of women's 1650-yard free titles at the NCAA Division I Women's Championships.
Trott dropped a time of 15:40.32 for her third straight win. She dropped eight seconds from her 2010 winning time of 15:48.87. Her time this evening stands fifth all time to move Trott up to fourth all time in the performers rankings. Only Katie Hoff (15:24.35), Kate Ziegler (15:29.15) and Janet Evans (15:39.14) have been faster.
Other three-time winners of the mile include Tami Bruce of Florida, Marybeth Linzmeier of Stanford, Mimosa McNerney of Florida and Flavia Rigamonti of SMU. Erika Hansen (1989) and Julie Varozza (1999) are other Georgia Bulldog winners of the mile, giving Georgia its fifth mile win in school history.
"I'm done, but I'm happy," Trott said. "The team championship was certainly on my mind, but in a good way. That's the best motivation for me is knowing that I have to go for my team. That definitely helped push me through when it got really tough. I'm definitely more of a back half swimmer, unlike the rest of the field. I knew I had to take it out easy, and then try and take it in the second half."
Towson's Meredith Budner put together a special senior swim with a sterling second-place time of 15:44.26. That time stands 13th all time, and moved Budner up to eighth in the all time performer charts. USC's Haley Anderson took third overall in 15:48.63, just pipping her personal best of 15:48.64 set in December of 2010 to move to 12th in the all time rankings.
Minnesota's Ashley Steenvoorden (15:53.80), Duke's Ashley Twichell (15:56.73), Georgia's Chelsea Nauta (15:57.21) and Arkansas's Chelsea Franklin (15:59.05) also cleared 16:00. Tennessee's Lindsay Gendron finished eighth overall in 16:01.77.
Georgia moved into the lead with 307.5 points, while California stood second with 295 points. USC (269), Stanford (192) and Arizona (184) completed the top five.
Top 10 Average Scoring Running Projections*:
California (426.875), Georgia (390.5), USC (340.375), Stanford (270.375), Arizona (261.5), Texas (258), Florida (226.75), Auburn (194.625), Minnesota (186.5), Texas A&M (184.125)
* Average Scoring Projections based on the average points allotted to an A finalist (14.75) and a B finalist (4.625). Double points for relays.
Swimming World's NCAA Division I Women's Championships Notes Package Sponsored by NISCA
