AUBURN, Ala. — The Penn State women’s swimming team completed action at the 2012 NCAA Championships on Saturday (March 17) evening, placing 22nd overall. Penn State advanced to the finals in two events on the day. The Nittany Lions’ 22nd place finish is the school’s best since 2006.
Sophomore Chelsea Weedman qualified for the 200 butterfly finals with a new best time of 1:56.85 in the preliminaries. Then in Weedman’s first ever NCAA finals appearance, she finished in 15th place with a time of 1:56.98, just off of her lifetime best from prelims.
In the 400 freestyle relay, senior Sam Palser, junior Paige Whitmire, senior Erin Thomas, and senior Katie Pulos finished in 3:16.16 in the 400 freestyle relay, good for 11th place and a spot in the B final. That’s just .04 off their gold-medal winning and school record that they earned at Big Ten’s last month. In the final race of the meet, Penn State finished 14th in the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:16.99. It was the final race for Palser, Thomas and Pulos, who all had fantastic Nittany Lion careers.
In the 100 freestyle preliminaries, Palser finished third in her heat with a time of 49.06 seconds. Merritt Krawczyk finished the 200 breaststroke prelims in 2:12.17. Meanwhile, sophomore Mackenzie Powers swam the 200 butterfly in 1:58.64, a lifetime best for her.