Jayhawks keep pace during day two of the USA Winter Nationals
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Three Jayhawks swam in Friday night’s final events at the 2018 USA Swimming Winter National Championships inside the Greensboro Aquatic Center.
Junior Jenny Nusbaum started the evening of finals with a sixth-place finish in the 200-meter freestyle B Finals with a time of 2:03.17 .
Freshman Kate Steward set a new career-best when she swam a 1:11.05 in the 100-meter breaststroke B Final, giving herself a fifth-place finish.
Junior Elizabeth Amato-Hanner closed out the evening when she touched the wall in the 100-meter backstroke C Final with a time of 1:03.77.
Earlier Friday, all seven Jayhawks representing Kansas participated in the morning preliminary events leading to the finals.
Nusbaum had a fast start in the 200-meter freestyle where she swam a time of 2:02.81, tying her personal-best mark and placing her into the consolation final heat for the second time in as many days.
“She (Jenny) did a great job in that first race and is such a strong competitor,” head coach Clark Campbell said. “She does her thing and races well and motivates everyone else to also do well and I think it is absolutely critical.”
Following up Nusbaum’s success, Steward took her first consolation final spot in the 100-meter breaststroke with a time of 1:11.37 as she took the top spot in her heat and a 13-place finish overall in the preliminary event. Junior Haley Downey followed Steward in the same event with a time of 1:12.57.
“In these championship meets you always look at grabbing a lane in the night race and it is hard to get in to a second swim,” Campbell said. “You want to grab a lane and then learn from what you did in the morning to see if you can go even faster in the finals session.”
Amato-Hanner, sophomores Manon Manning and Lauryn Parrish and freshman Dewi Blose all competed in the 100-meter backstroke to round out the morning.
Amato-Hanner took her heat (1:03.58) and placed 23rd overall to put her into the C Finals Friday night while Manning touched the wall in 29th swimming a 1:04.04 –both having career-best swims. Parrish and Blose finished the preliminary event with times of 1:04.52 and 1:04.68, respectively.
“Everyone had strong performances and just kept rolling today,” Campbell said. “For a team that doesn’t have an opportunity to train a lot of long-course we were really pleased with how it went.”
Amato-Hanner and Parrish will begin the Saturday morning preliminary events for the Jayhawks in the 200-meter backstroke event.
Directly after that, Nusbaum swims the 100-meter freestyle and is quickly followed by the 200-meter breaststroke event swum by Downey and Steward.
Preliminary events begin at 8 a.m. (CT) Saturday morning, starting with the 1500-meter freestyle.
Fans can watch the preliminary and final rounds via a live feed on USASwimming.org.
UP NEXT
The Jayhawks continue the Winter National Championships Saturday morning with preliminary rounds beginning at 8 a.m. (CT).
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