Day 2 Results
| Sophomore Meredith Brownell placed seventh in the one-meter dive and scored 12 points for Kansas. |
|
Photo Gallery
Austin, TEXAS. – Sophomore Chelsie Miller swam a record-breaking time in the 200-yard individual medley on the second day of competition at the 2014 Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships inside the Jamail Texas Swimming Center Friday night.
The Houston, Texas native broke the seven year-old KU all-time record in the 200-yard individual medley (2:00.21) during her preliminary race. Miller swam a time of 1:58.98 in the morning and clinched a third-place finish during the finals (1:59.25), chalking up 16 points for the Jayhawks. Senior Alison Lusk added to her performance when she placed 11th in the same event with a time of 2:04.66.
“Chelsie’s race was well put together,” head coach Clark Campbell said. “Every stroke within that race was strong. She struggles more with the 200 IM than the 400 IM, so for her to swim that time was impressive. She will now also be able to swim that race again at nationals, in addition to the 400 IM. I’m proud of her new-best time and new school record.”
Senior Malia Johnson had a strong race for the Jayhawks in the 500-yard freestyle. Johnson was the top finisher for the Jayhawks in the event, finishing in 4:49.94, the fourth-best time in school history. Freshmen Sammie Schurig and Alison Merecka were close behind, finishing 10th and 11th with times of 4:52.33 and 4:53.83, respectively.
“I was happy with how Malia swam,” Campbell said. “She really attacked the race head on. You want to see the seniors go out with lifetime-best performances, and she was able to do that this evening. She led from wire-to-wire and made a statement during the race. We couldn’t be happier. She’s excited and looking forward to the rest of the meet.”
In the 50-yard freestyle, freshman Leah Pfitzer took the highest place for the Jayhawks and earned 7 points toward the team total when she placed 10th (23.36). Fellow classmate Pia Pavlic wasn’t far off, swimming a time of 23.89 for 15th place.
“I thought this morning we weren’t as sharp as we could have been,” Campbell said. “I think we weren’t quite recovered from the Wednesday night swims. The team was on a big high and we may not have cooled down enough Wednesday night going into this morning, so the preliminary results were not reflective of where we should have been. The kids that earned second swims this evening stepped up and swam faster.”
Helping the Jayhawks on the board was the second-place finishing 400-yard medley relay team of Yuldiz “Yulya” Kuchkarova, Bryce Hinde, Sofiia Filatova and Morgan Sharp (3:41.16). The silver-worthy performance earned Kansas 34 points. The silver-worthy performance earned Kansas 34 points. They finished just hundredth of seconds ahead of the Iowa State relay team (3:41.81).
“All four did well, but I was pleased with how tough Morgan Sharp was after being disqualified in the 500 free and coming back and giving us a tremendous 100 free at the end of the race,” Campbell said. “It was close going into her leg, but she sealed the second-place finish for us. It was a tribute to her and her mental toughness for her to be able to bounce back in such a short amount of time.”
In the diving pool, sophomore Meredith Brownell placed seventh and put up 12 points for Kansas in the one-meter dive with a score of 241.40.
“We are going to have to swim at a high level tomorrow,” Campbell said. “The team race is close. It’s exciting, but every swim and dive is going to be important tomorrow. Tomorrow could take us a long way in reaching our potential as a team. We want to approach each of our events tomorrow morning with focus so we can come back and score points at night.”
After the second day of competition, Texas is in the lead with 395.5 points, followed by Iowa State (185.5), West Virginia (182), Kansas (177) and TCU (161). Preliminary competition for tomorrow’s events will begin at 10 a.m., with finals to be swam in the evening at 6 p.m.
KUAthletics.com: The official online source for Kansas Athletics, Williams Education Fund contributions, tickets, merchandise, multimedia, photos and much, much more.
