ND’s Luciana Thomas, NU’s Ally Larson Lock Up NCAA Qualifying Spots at Purdue

Purdue “Boiler-Make-It” Last Chance Meet

• February 29th, 2020
• Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
• 25y (SCY) Pool
• Complete Results (PDF)

Notre Dame sophomore Luciana Thomas made the most of her lone swim on Saturday at the Purdue “Last Chance” meet, ensuring that her last chance wasn’t her last swim of the 2019-2020 NCAA season.

Thomas swam a 1:54.70 in the 200 butterfly on Saturday, which was only .04 seconds away from the Notre Dame school record in the event. Further, the time all-but-guarantees her a spot at the NCAA Championships in March. Coming into Saturday (with the Pac-12, among several mid-major conferences, yet to swim the 200 fly), Thomas ranked 36th in the nation in that event. With between 36-40 usually earning invites in each individual women’s event to the NCAA Championship meet, that left her firmly on the bubble. Her nes best time jumps her to 21st in the nation, and with more than a few Pac-12 swimmers likely to bump her, she is an almost-definite qualifier for NCAAs.

Her teammate Colleen Gillilan, a freshman who swam 1:54.79 at the ACC Championships, now slides to 22nd in the nation, which also gives her a likely spot at NCAAs.

Alos in that 200 fly on Saturday, Northwestern freshman Ally Larson improved her qualification status with a 1:55.84. That not only cut half-a-second off her own Northwestern Record set at the Big Ten Championships, but it bumps her from the bubble at 38th place nationally to a much-more-secure rank of 31st nationally (though that’s still not a lock).

Other NCAA-Impact Swims:

• Purdue senior Jinq En-Phee sought to improve her status for a 4th-straight NCAA Championship qualification with a 100 breaststroke swim on Saturday. While she did manage to shave a few hundredths from her season-best time from 1:00.11 to 1:00.07, that time only improved her lot from 43rd nationally to tied-for-42nd nationally. With only 1 or 2 swimmers ahead of her with a real event choice to make at NCAAs, that’s unlikely to get an individual invite.
• Notre Dame’s Bayley Stewart swam a 1:54.07 in the 200 back which moves her into 4th place in Notre Dame’s all-time rankings. It shaves .03 seconds off her time from the ACC Championships, but doesn’t move her up at all in the national rankings: she remains 41st. A 1:54.04 was needed to qualify for last year’s NCAA Championship meet, and this year it looks like that cut will be a hair faster.
• Purdue freshman Sylvia Kobylak cut more than a second off her season-best time in the 200 breaststroke, swimming 2:10.61 on Saturday. That swim leaves her on the wrong side of the bubble as well, ranking 43rd in the country this season.
• Notre Dame’s Carly Quast is on the bubble in the 100 back, ranked 41st with a 52.55 from the ACC Championships. She was unable to improve that standing on Saturday, swimming 53.30, and now will wait to see who ahead of her choose other events.