Queens Swimming Downs 3 NCAA D2 Records at Bluegrass Mountain Conference Championships
CHARLOTTE – Queens Swimming went to town on the NCAA Division II record books tonight at the Bluegrass Mountain Conference Championships.
Queens’ Patricia Castro Ortega (1:46.58), Caroline Arakelian (1:48.26), McKenzie Stevens (1:51.08) and Lillian Gordy (1:50.34) then torched the NCAA D2 record in the women’s 200-yard medley relay with a 7:16.26.
Drury’s Tinsley Andrews (1:48.87), Kaylan Gieseke (1:52.00), Leah Reed (1:50.44) and Sarah Pullen (1:48.77) previously set the record last March with a 7:20.08.
Additionally, Castro Ortega’s leadoff of 1:46.58 broke the 10-year old 200-yard free NCAA D2 record of CSU Bakersfield’s Loni Burton. Burton turned in a sizzling 1:47.10 back in 2005.
Loni Burton’s Splits:
24.80, 51.57, 1:18.90, 1:47.10
Patricia Castro Ortega’s Splits:
24.92, 51.71, 1:19.17, 1:46.58
Queens closed out the night with another NCAA D2 record as Matt Josa (1:36.22), Nick Arakelian (1:35.59), Ben Taylor (1:37.26) and Hayden Kosater (1:38.16) put up a 6:27.23.
That effort downed the 6:27.73 set by Florida Southern’s Jeffrey Halfacre, Luis Rojas, Allan Gutierrez and Stephen Swan in 2012.
Castro Ortega has a faster 20O free, 1:46.18 @. Nationals in December.
However, time can’t count as an NCAA record as she had not yet officially enrolled at Queens, which she did shortly thereafter.
She has represented Spain internationally at the World Championships and possibly the Olympics too.
Her 200 meter free pr is 1:52.97 — .01 FASTER than Frederica Pelligrini’s current world-record but an irregularity in the timing system was discovered and her actual time was in the highs 1:58 plus.
Just kidding Patty but her pr is in the mid-1:58 range from either the Rome or Shanghai World Championships. See if she can go 1:45 plus in 200 yard free race itself.
If the name ” Burton” sounds familiar it should. Lori Burton is the daughter of Mike, former UCLA 1650 free gold-medalist at the NCAA Championships and the first man to win back-to- back 1500 free titles at the Olympics — 1968 Mexico City and again four years later in Munich.
Wayne State went 1.27.1 in the prelims but their record is 1.26.02 in the finals!