Arizona’s Taylor Garcia Secures NCAA Qualifying in Pac-12 Last Chance

Arizona’s Taylor Garcia and Utah’s Genevieve Robertson were the two swimmers who locked-up an NCAA Invite during the Pac-12 Last Chance time trials on Sunday at the King County Aquatic Center.

The meet, tagged on to the end of the Pac-12 Championships, was a last opportunity for swimmers to earn times worthy of invites to the NCAA Championships, and while teams from all over the western United States made the journey for a last-ditch effort, the two Pac-12 swimmers did themselves the biggest favors.

The Arizona freshman Garcia swam a 52.47 in the time trial prelims in the 100 back, and while she was just 52.69 in finals, that morning swim moved her up to 28th-place in the national rankings as of posting. Last year, at least 38 women got invites to NCAAs in each event, and so 28 is effectively a lock for qualification. She was previously squarely on the bubble for qualifying.

At NCAAs, Garcia will be chasing her own best time of 52.07 that was done more than two years ago in 2013 when she was still a junior in high school.

The other beneficiary of the meet was Utah’s Genevieve Robertson, who swam a 2:10.60 in the 200 breaststroke. That improved upon her 2:11.47 during the regular Pac-12 races. That moved her up to 33rd, and in good shape for an NCAA invite, after having been on the outside-looking-in.

Other significant swims:

• Boise State – Katelyn Martin 50 free (22.56) (22.42) – she swam 22.38 at the Mountain West Championships, which ranks her 43rd, which is considered a “bubble rank” in a sprint freestyle event.
• Boise Sate – Brittany Aoyama 100 fly (52.74) (52.78) – her prelims time improved her Mountain West swim by .01 seconds, which moves her into a tie of 41st. We’ll still call that a “bubble” rank, but not on the right side of the bubble.
• Arizona – Cameron McHugh (1:55.07) (1:54.72) – she swam 1:54.64 at Pac 12s, and just missed improving that. She remains ranked 41st nationally in the event.
• Cal – Rachael Acker 100 free (48.86) – she swam 48.81 at Pac 12s, so this time just missed an improvement. She currently ranks 46th, but again this is a sprint freestyle with a high likelihood of swimmers ahead of her entering other events.

Results on Meet Mobile.