NCAA Women’s Championships: Taylor Ruck Rips 1:42.70 to Lead Tight 200 Freestyle Prelims
NCAA Women’s Championships: Taylor Ruck Rips 1:42.70 to Lead Tight 200 Free Prelims
At her final collegiate meet, Stanford’s Taylor Ruck will be in pole position to defend the 200 freestyle title she earned last year. Ruck, who entered the meet with the fifth-best seed time, jumped out ahead of her heat and held off a strong finish from Virginia’s Aimee Canny. Ruck finished in 1:42.70, just ahead of Canny’s 1:42.97. Ruck is tied for fourth all-time in this event at 1:40.37, and she swam a time of 1:41.12 in winning the national title last year.
The field will have a distinct international flavor with the top three seeds all from outside the United States. Canada’s Ruck and South Africa’s Canny will be joined by another Canadian, Tennessee’s Brooklyn Douthwright, after Douthwright swam a mark of 1:43.22 for the third-best time overall. Douthwright owns the top season-best mark in the field at 1:42.45. Indiana’s Anna Peplowski finished just behind Douthwright in that heat at 1:43.27, which tied Stanford’s Kayla Wilson for fourth overall.
In the third of seven heats, Virginia’s Maxine Parker made a huge jump up through the rankings. She entered with a seed time of 1:45.49, but she dropped down to 1:43.28 with a dominant effort. That held up for the sixth-best qualifying time overall. Texas A&M’s Chloe Stepanek qualified seventh in 1:43.83, while Louisville’s Paige Hetrick produced another sterling swim from outside the circle-seeded heats. Her time of 1:43.90 helped her comfortably win heat four, and because of that swim, Hetrick snuck into the A-final by one hundredth over Texas’ Kelly Pash (1:43.91).
Pash was the third-place finisher in this event last season, and with the Stanford duo of Lillie Nordmann and Morgan Tankersley also missing the A-final, Ruck is the only returning top-eight finisher from last season. Tankersley ended up tying for 12th with NC State’s Abbey Webb in 1:44.02 (Florida’s Ekaterina Nikonova and Ohio State’s Amy Fulmer both missed the A-final after going sub-1:44).
Event 10 Women 200 Yard Freestyle ================================================================== NCAA: N 1:39.10 3/20/2015 Missy Franklin, California Meet: M 1:39.10 3/20/2015 Missy Franklin, California American: A 1:39.10 3/20/2015 Missy Franklin, California US Open: O 1:39.10 3/20/2015 Missy Franklin, California Pool: P 1:41.40 12/6/2013 Missy Franklin, California Name Year School Seed Prelims ================================================================== === Preliminaries === 1 Ruck, Taylor SR Stanford 1:43.04 1:42.70 r:+0.71 23.58 49.60 (26.02) 1:15.97 (26.37) 1:42.70 (26.73) 2 Canny, Aimee FR Virginia 1:42.62 1:42.94 r:+0.74 24.14 50.24 (26.10) 1:16.57 (26.33) 1:42.94 (26.37) 3 Douthwright, Brooklyn SO Tennessee 1:42.45 1:43.22 r:+0.60 24.26 50.60 (26.34) 1:17.00 (26.40) 1:43.22 (26.22) 4 Wilson, Kayla FR Stanford 1:43.74 1:43.27 r:+0.68 24.31 50.20 (25.89) 1:16.74 (26.54) 1:43.27 (26.53) 4 Peplowski, Anna SO Indiana 1:43.33 1:43.27 r:+0.70 24.22 50.43 (26.21) 1:16.76 (26.33) 1:43.27 (26.51) 6 Parker, Maxine JR Virginia 1:45.49 1:43.28 r:+0.73 24.48 50.53 (26.05) 1:16.80 (26.27) 1:43.28 (26.48) 7 Stepanek, Chloe JR TAMU 1:43.37 1:43.83 r:+0.67 24.05 50.45 (26.40) 1:17.19 (26.74) 1:43.83 (26.64) 8 Hetrick, Paige JR Louisville 1:44.83 1:43.90 r:+0.69 23.98 49.98 (26.00) 1:16.65 (26.67) 1:43.90 (27.25) ----------------------------------------------------------------- 9 Pash, Kelly SR Texas 1:42.73 1:43.91 r:+0.69 23.75 49.65 (25.90) 1:16.60 (26.95) 1:43.91 (27.31) 10 Nikonova, Ekaterina SO Florida 1:43.96 1:43.93 r:+0.67 24.36 50.81 (26.45) 1:17.45 (26.64) 1:43.93 (26.48) 11 Fulmer, Amy SR Ohio St 1:42.94 1:43.99 r:+0.72 24.22 50.48 (26.26) 1:17.20 (26.72) 1:43.99 (26.79) 12 Webb, Abbey JR NC State 1:43.84 1:44.02 r:+0.68 24.39 50.86 (26.47) 1:17.53 (26.67) 1:44.02 (26.49) 12 Tankersley, Morgan SR Stanford 1:44.04 1:44.02 r:+0.69 24.64 50.87 (26.23) 1:17.43 (26.56) 1:44.02 (26.59) 14 Carlson, Abby SO Wisconsin 1:44.19 1:44.27 r:+0.66 24.76 51.24 (26.48) 1:17.75 (26.51) 1:44.27 (26.52) 15 Atkinson, Emma JR VT 1:43.31 1:44.31 r:+0.71 24.41 50.07 (25.66) 1:16.85 (26.78) 1:44.31 (27.46) 16 Motekaitis, Mia SR California 1:43.92 1:44.47 r:+0.69 24.59 50.98 (26.39) 1:17.86 (26.88) 1:44.47 (26.61)