Eight members of the No. 22 NC State women’s swimming & diving team were selected to take part in the upcoming 2014 NCAA Championships, as announced Wednesday evening by the NCAA. The Championships will take place from March 20-22 in Minneapolis, Minn.
Senior Zina Grogg, junior Lauren Poli, sophomore Riki Bonnema, along with freshmen Kayla Brumbaum, Ashlyn Koletic, Natalie Labonge, Lotta Nevalainen and Alexia Zevnik each will compete in the Championships. Grogg, Poli and Bonnema will each represent the Pack for the second time in their careers.
State will send teams to compete in the 200 (1:28.71), 400 (3:14.96) and 800 freestyle (7:07.99) relays, as well as the 200 (1:37.18) and 400 (3:35.79) medley relays.
At the 2014 ACC Championships, the Pack set the school record in each of the five relay events contested, including an ACC title in the 200 freestyle relay for the second consecutive season. In addition, the squad also took the silver medal in the 400 freestyle relay and the 200 medley relay.
In addition to qualifying as members of relay teams, Bonnema, Grogg, Nevalainen and Zevnik were selected to take part in individual events.
Bonnema and Nevalainen will each represent the Wolfpack in the 50 free. Bonnema finished as a runner-up on the podium at the ACC Championships and set the school record with a time of 22.16, while Nevalainen’s top time of 22.28 ranks second in the program record books.
State will also send representation to compete in the 100 back, as Grogg and Zevnik earned selections to compete. Zevnik set the program’s top mark in the event at the ACC Championships with a time of 52.65, while Grogg’s mark of 52.93 ranks second.
A total of 322 participants (281 swimmers and 41 divers) will compete in the championships. Swimmers qualified for the championships by meeting the established minimum time for the events in which they entered.
This release was provided to SwimSwam courtesy of NC State Swimming and Diving.
