The Ohio State women’s team hosted a ‘Last Chance’ qualifier over the weekend at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion. Although no NCAA D1 A cuts were achieved, several women did dip beneath last year’s invite time, possibly setting themselves up for a chance to compete in Atlanta.
Sliding under the NCAA B cut was Wisconsin’s 200 medley relay, whose combination of Jessica Unicomb (24.93) Anna Meinholz (27.58), Dana Grindall (23.67) and Chase Kinney (21.49) clocked a speedy 1:37.67. The same squad registered a collective time of 1:38.19 at the B1G Championships, so they were able to shave over half a second off their 5th place result. Key split drops between B1G and this time trial were instrumental in the improved time, marked by Unicomb’s dipping beneath 25 in the opening 50 and Kinney dropping over .3 from her anchor between B1G and this relay.
Kinney also tried to lower her 22.19 B cut which earned her a silver at the Big Ten Championships, but registered a 22.28 at the time trial. Both marks are under the 22.4 invite time from last year, so the sophomore may have done enough to be safe.
The women’s 200 butterfly saw two swimmers register marks below the 1:56.97 invite time from last year. Penn State’s Katie Rowe and Purdue’s Emmy Rawson each dropped mega time from their championship performances to notch times under that threshold. Rowe wound up 6th in 1:58.27 at B1G, but scored a time of 1:56.23 at the time trial. Rawson finished 5th in Ann Arbor (1:57.96), but dropped over a second to come away with a 1:56.52 at the time trial. We’ll have to wait and see if their fresh new outings are enough to get to Atlanta.
Breaststrokers also came away with some possible NCAA-championship-worthy swims, as Wisconsin’s Maria Carlson touched in 1:00.66 in the 100, narrowly under last year’s invite time of 1:00.74, but way under the 1:01.87 which rendered her 14th at B1G. Carlson then also nabbed a 200 breast mark of 2:10.89 at the time trial, which not only beat her 11th place result of 2:12.43, but dips well beneath last year’s invite time of 2:11.23.
Ohio State’s Amy Bopp and Kentucky’s Kendra Crew were in the same boat, where their time trial cuts join Carlson in easing under last year’s invite threshold in the 200 breaststroke. Bopp scored a 2:10.51, while Crew registered a 2:10.31, both sitting well under 2015’s invite time of 2:11.23. For Bopp, her time trial result slashed over 3 seconds from her 12th place time of 2:13.78 at B1G, while Crew dropped just under a second from her 2:11.35 11th place result at SECs.
Borderline, however, is Notre Dame’s Alice Treuth, who swam the 200 backstroke in a time of 1:54.69. The freshman finished 7th at ACCs with a time of 1:55.84, so her time trial was a marked improvement. But, the 2015 invite time in the event sits at 1:54.66, so, as with the aforementioned swimmers, only time will tell if she did enough to punch her ticket to the NCAA championships.
