Emma Sundstrand Hits NCAA ‘B’ Cut as Miami Maintains Lead over Vanderbilt

University of Miami Invite/Vanderbilt Dual

The University of Miami extended its lead over Vanderbilt on Thursday as the two teams battled it out in Coral Gables at the Hurricane’s home pool.

Miami kicked things off with a victory in the 200 medley relay, edging Vanderbilt 1:41.80 to 1:42.48. Emma Sundstrand delivered the fastest breaststroke split in the field for Miami with a 27.93, meanwhile Miami’s Savannah Barr and Vanderbilt’s Alaina Stout delivered equally the fastest butterfly splits with a pair of 24.61s.

Following the medley relay, Barr was back in the 100 fly where she placed 2nd in 54.35. The win went to Vanderbilt’s Tonner DeBeer who also swam on the medley relay, delivering the second-fastest freestyle split in the field. Stout, who delivered the co-fastest fly split in the medley relay, placed 4th in the 100 fly with a 56.08. DeBeer later won the 100 backstroke in 54.79, making her the only woman to break 55, though she was about 1.5 seconds off her lifetime best from 2017.

Miami’s Aino Otava dominated the 400 IM, winning in 4:22.57, the 8th-fastest time in program history. Vanderbilt, however, placed 2nd, 3rd, and 5th, though Miami still emerged with more points in the race thanks to 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 7th place finishes.

Miami’s Carmen San Nicolas Martinez dominated the 200 freestyle in 1:49.72 to win by nearly a second over teammate Sydney Knapp who had earlier delivered the fastest freestyle split in the field in the medley relay with a 22.86.

Miami’s Sundstrand scored an NCAA ‘B’ cut in the women’s 100 breaststroke, touching in 1:01.31, a noteworthy swim considering this is only her second collegiate swim meet.

Miami’s ‘B’ ended the meet with another victory in the 800 freestyle relay, delivering a 7:28.46 to the Miami ‘A’ team’s 7:30.69. Otava, the 400 IM champion, led off for the ‘B’ team in a 1:49.89, though she was out-done by Barr who posted a 1:48.06 leading off for the ‘B’ team. Barr, who also swam the 100 fly and was a member of the winning 200 medley relay, did not swim the individual 200 freestyle, though her time on the relay would have won by nearly 2 seconds if she had.

Vanderbilt’s ‘A’ team placed 3rd in the 800 freestyle relay in 7:41.97, good for 32 points.

Team Scores After Day 2

  1. Miami, 657
  2. Vanderbilt, 612

Scoring for this meet is different than we’re used to. The top-4 finishers are awarded points as if they were finishing in the top-4 at a traditional invitational or championship meet, whereas the swimmers that place 5th through 8th score as if they were finishing 9th through 12th in a traditional championship meet. This means that points are awarded accordingly:

  • 1st = 20
  • 2nd = 17
  • 3rd = 16
  • 4th = 15
  • 5th = 9
  • 6th = 7
  • 7th = 6
  • 8th = 5
  • 9th & on = 0

Furthermore, the ‘A’ finals consist of only the 2 fastest swimmers from each team following prelims, ensuring that each school has two representative in the ‘A’ final, though the ‘B’ final may contain up to 8 swimmers, per usual, though only those that place within the top-4 in the heat will earn their team points.

Relays, however, score double (per usual), though only 4 teams, 2 from each Miami and Vanderbilt, may compete in the ‘A’ final for points, meaning 1st place earns 40 points, 2nd place 34 points, 3rd place 32 points, and 4th place 30 points.

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About Reid Carlson

Reid Carlson

Reid Carlson originally hails from Clay Center, Kansas, where he began swimming at age six with the Clay Center Tiger Sharks, a summer league team. At age 14 he began swimming club year-round with the Manhattan Marlins (Manhattan, KS), which took some convincing from his mother as he was very …

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