Payne Qualifies for Olympic Trials as Kansas Aquatics Swims Away With Sectionals
July 23, 2011
COLUMBIA, Mo. –
Kansas swimmer and senior co-captain Stephanie Payne is now one step closer to competing in the 2012 summer Olympics in London as she finished with a time of 2:16.39 in the 200 meter butterfly at sectionals in Columbia, Mo this past weekend. Her personal best performance in the event was good enough to send her to Omaha, Nebraska next June for the Olympic Trials.
“We are really proud of her accomplishment,” said head coach Clark Campbell after his swimmer’s feat. “It is every swimmer’s goal to have an opportunity to go to Olympic trials and represent their country in the games, so these were no doubt big steps for Stephanie in achieving her life-long goal.”
The senior from Derby, Kan. is coming off a successful junior campaign in which she broke two school records (one of which she already owned), at the Big 12 Championships in February, while scoring a total of 27-points for her team in the process.
Payne and a number of her Jayhawk teammates are competing in Kansas Aquatics during the summer, which took them to the Speedo Champions Series in Columbia over the past four days.
Aided by Payne’s stellar performance and 33 total points scored, Kansas Aquatics swam to a first place finish during sectionals, beating out over 100 swim clubs from six different states throughout the Midwest.
Last year, KA (Kansas Aquatics) finished third during sectionals, but with a first place finish in all three relay events and 50-points scored by KU junior Rebecca Swank, KA was able to come out on top in 2011.
“We were shocked that we were even in the running to win sectionals,” said head coach Clark Campbell after the meet. “We had a fantastic weekend of swimming and this sets us up really well for nationals in two weeks.”
Joining Payne and Swank in their team’s success were former Jayhawk standouts Maria Mayrovich and Danielle Herrmann, who compete for KA during the summer. Mayrovich scored 40 total points for KA with her first place finishes in the 100 meter freestyle (57.57) and 50 free (25.90). Herrmann, who is a volunteer assistant coach for KU during the regular season, racked up 17-points with her second place finish and 2:20.60 time in the 200 meter IM. Other current Kansas swimmers scoring points for KA during sectionals were seniors Kath Liggett (13) and Shannon Garlie (11), juniors Brooke Brull (21), Brittany Rospierski (20) and Alyssa Rudman (12) as well as sophomores Malia Johnson (8) Alison Lusk (7).
A total of eight swimmers from Kansas Aquatics, seven of which swim for KU will be traveling to Stanford, California to compete in nationals August 2-6.
Payne will have the Olympic Trials to look forward to next June 25-July 2, once her senior season at KU is complete.
Complete results from sectionals in Columbia can be found here: http://www.csctigersharks.org/realtime/
Information on the 2012 Olympic Time Trials can be found here: http://www.usaswimming.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=1450&Alias=rainbow&Lang=en
