Michigan
NCAA Championships (Day 1)
Crisman Leads U-M at Day One of NCAA Championships
3/15/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming & Diving
EAST MEADOW, N.Y. -- The 2001 NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships began today (Thursday, March 15) at the Nassau Aquatic Center, and the University of Michigan is in 21st place with 17 points after the day's six events. U-M turned in four NCAA All-America Honorable Mention performances to highlight the first day of competition. Auburn is in first-place with 121.5 points, while defending champion Georgia (112.5 points) and Texas (107.5) round out the top three.
Senior co-captain Jennifer Crisman (Hudsonville, Mich./Jenison HS) led the way for U-M, beginning her fourth and final NCAA Championships appearance with a strong performance. Crisman was involved in three NCAA All-America Honorable Mention performances -- one individual and two relay -- raising her career total to 12 such honors.
Individually, Crisman placed 12th in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 22.96. In relay competition, Crisman along with senior co-captain Missy Sugar (Newburgh, Ind./Evansville Day School), freshman Annie Weilbacher (Columbus, Ohio/St. Francis DeSales HS) and sophomore Laura Kaznecki (Wolverine Lake, Mich./Western HS) contributed a 15th-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:32.42. Crisman also teamed with Sugar, Weilbacher and sophomore Traci Valasco (Rochester Hills, Mich./Rochester Adams HS) to place 15th in the 400-yard medley relay at 3:42.65.
Freshman Emily Fenn (Westport, Conn./Gardner HS) performed well individually in her first-ever NCAA Championships appearance. Fenn turned in a time of 4:47.52 in to place 13th in the 500-yard freestyle, earning NCAA All-America Honorable Mention. Earlier in the day, she established a career-best time in the preliminary round of the event with a time of 4:46.75.
The three-day competition continues Friday and Saturday (March 16-17), with the preliminary heats beginning at 11 a.m. and finals at 7 p.m. each day. Complete results are available on the NCAA Championships website.
Top 10 Teams (Day 1)
1. Auburn 121.5 2. Georgia 112.5 3. Texas 107.5 4. Stanford 96.5 5. Arizona 87 6. California 85 7. Southern Cal 75 8. Florida 71 9. Southern Methodist 55.5 10. North Carolina 51 ----------------------------- 21. MICHIGAN 17
Top Eight/U-M Finishes (Day 1)
(Preliminary times for U-M in parentheses if faster than finals time)
200-yard Freestyle Relay
1. Texas 1:28.89!*# (Colleen Lanne, Tanica Jamison, Kelley Robins, Erin Phenix) 2. California 1:30.05 3. Auburn 1:30.31 4. Georgia 1:30.44 5. Arizona 1:30.62 6. Florida 1:31.23 7. Hawaii 1:31.33 8. Rice 1:31.53 15. MICHIGAN 1:32.42 (Jennifer Crisman, Missy Sugar, Annie Weilbacher, Laura Kaznecki)500-yard Freestyle
1. Jessica Foschi, Stanford 4:37.81 2. Janelle Atkinson, Florida 4:39.44 3. Cara Lane, Virginia 4:39.61 4. Julie Hardt, Georgia 4:42.46 5. Magda Dyszkiewicz, Auburn 4:42.48 6. Sara McLarty, Florida 4:44.03 7. Maria Oberg, Cincinnati 4:45.69 8. Ellen Stonebraker, Wisconsin 4:48.89 13. Emily Fenn, U-M 4:47.52 (4:46.75) 35. Lori Eberwein, U-M 4:52.55200-yard Individual Medley
1. Maggie Bowen, Auburn 1:55.49!*# 2. Shelly Ripple, Stanford 1:56.24 3. Michala Kwasny, Southern Cal 1:57.60 4. Ashley Roby, Georgia 1:58.59 5. Katie Hathaway, North Carolina 1:59.67 6. Erika Acuff, North Carolina 1:59.71 7. Keegan Walkley, Georgia 1:59.96 8. Kristin MacGregor, Southern Cal 2:00.00 35. Sara Johnson, U-M 2:05.12 39. Lindsay Carlberg, U-M 2:06.10 40. Annie Weilbacher, U-M 2:06.4550-yard Freestyle
1. Colleen Lanne, Texas 21.99 2. Haley Cope, California 22.34 3. Jennifer Cristy, Indiana 22.47 4. Christy Cech, Florida State 22.58 5. Eileen Coparropa, Auburn 22.60 6. Stefanie Williams, Georgia 22.61 Erin Phenix, Texas 22.61 8. Michelle Engelsman, Arizona 22.76 12. Jennifer Crisman, U-M 22.96 (22.89) 43. Laura Kaznecki, U-M 23.60 53. Missy Sugar, U-M 23.92One-meter Diving
1. Yulia Pakhalina, Houston 329.60 2. Katie Beth Bryant, Miami (Fla.) 324.75 3. Jamie Sanger, Tennessee 315.15 4. Jenny Keim, Miami (Fla.) 302.15 5. McKenze Murphy, Stanford 299.25 6. Erin Quinn, Indiana 298.05 7. Kellie Brennan, Southern Cal 298.00 8. Erin Lutz, Princeton 273.60400-yard Medley Relay
1. Stanford 3:32.43!# (Shelly Ripple, Tara Kirk, Misty Hyman, Siobhan Cropper) 2. California 3:34.83* 3. Arizona 3:35.21 4. Auburn 3:36.74 5. Georgia 3:37.62 6. Texas 3:38.20 7. Southern Cal 3:39.70 8. Arizona State 3:40.16 15. Michigan 3:42.65 (Jennifer Crisman, Traci Valasco, Annie Weilbacher, Missy Sugar) ! NCAA record * American record # U.S. Open record
N O T E S
In their first career NCAA Championships appearances, Traci Valasco, Emily Fenn and Annie Weilbacher each earned NCAA All-America Honorable Mention recognition.
With her contributions in two top-16 relay squads today, Missy Sugar is now up to four All-America Honorable Mention awards for her career.
Q U O T E S
Head Coach Jim Richardson
On the team's first-day performance ... "Overall, I'm a little disappointed that we aren't duplicating our times from last month, but I'm not going to let what happens here detract from our incredible performance last month. This team's focus for the year was the Big Ten Championships and they accomplished that goal. The goal for most of the kids was to get here, and they accomplished that. We're still going to see if we can find that can of magic we had last month and squeeze out a little more at the end."
On the 400-yard medley relay's NCAA All-America Honorable Mention performance ... "Scoring the medley relay was a good accomplishment for the team. We were unsure at the beginning of the year whether that relay could even qualify for the meet."
Contact: Karen Simpson (734) 763-4423
Players Mentioned
