Mayrovich Places 20th, and Mertz 7th on the First Day of the NCAA Championships

March 19, 2009

COLLEGE STATION, Texas –

Kansas’ Maria Mayrovich placed 20th in the preliminaries of the 50 yard freestyle Thursday afternoon at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in College Station, Texas. Sophomore Erin Mertz placed seventh in the preliminaries of the one-meter diving competition. She will compete in the finals later Thursday evening.

Mayrovich, a senior, touched the wall in a time of 22.39, just 0.02 seconds off of a career-best time. Mayrovich needed to qualify in a time of 22.25 to earn a berth in th event’s finals.

Mertz continued her strong diving with a seventh place finish on the one-meter board. Mertz scored 284.35 points and earned the second-best score for a diver from the Big 12 Conference. She will join the top eight divers from this Thursday’s preliminaries to declare a one-meter champion.

Mayrovich will participate in the 200 yard freestyle and sophomore Iuliia Kuzhil will participate in her lone NCAA Championships event, the 100 yard backstroke Friday. Mertz will dive on the three-meter board Friday and the platform on Saturday.

Please check back with kuathletics.com for the latest news and results from the NCAA Championships. For live results, please visit aggieathletics.com.