The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
NCAA Championships
No. 6 Women’s Swimming and Diving Preview: NCAA Championships
03.15.2015 | Women's Swimming and Diving
NCAA Championships open Thursday, March 19 in Greensboro, North Carolina.
WHAT: Nine-time national champion and three-time defending Big 12 champion Texas concludes its season this week at the NCAA Championships. Texas has qualified all five relays (200, 400 & 800 freestyle; 200 & 400 medleys) for competition. The following eight swimmers and three divers will compete individually:
Swimmers
Madisyn Cox (2nd appearance; 200 IM, 400 IM & 200 breast)
Sarah Denninghoff (4th appearance, 2nd at Texas; 200 free, 100 & 200 back)
Gretchen Jaques (4th appearance; 50 free, 100 & 200 breast)
Tasija Karosas (2nd appearance; 200 IM, 100 & 200 back)
Kelsey LeNeave (4th appearance; 500 free, 100 & 200 fly)
Rebecca Millard (1st appearance; 50, 100 & 200 free)
Kaitlin Pawlowicz (4th appearance; 500 & 1,650 free, 400 IM)
Mimi Schneider (1st appearance; 50 & 100 free, 100 fly)
*Brynne Wong is eligible to compete as a relay alternate
Divers
Murphy Bromberg (2nd appearance; 3m & platform)
Meghan Houston (1st appearance; 1m & 3m)
Emma Ivory-Ganja (4th appearance, 2nd at Texas; 1m, 3m & platform)
WHEN/WHERE
Thursday, March 19-Saturday, March 21
11 a.m. ET swim prelims/1:45 p.m. dive prelims/7 p.m. ET finals each day
Greensboro Aquatic Center – Greensboro, North Carolina
CHAMPIONSHIPS INFORMATION
http://www.gopack.com/sports/c-swim/spec-rel/ncaa-swim-championships.html#
RESULTS
http://www.swmeets.com/Realtime/NCAA/2015/
LIVE VIDEO
www.gopack.com (Thursday-Saturday prelims, Thursday finals)
www.ESPN3.com (Friday & Saturday finals)
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS HISTORY
Texas ranks second all-time with its seven NCAA women's swimming and diving team championships (1984-88, 1990-91). The Longhorns posted a meet record of 746 points when they captured their last NCAA title in 1991. The record still stands today. UT also won AIAW national championships in 1981 and 1982.
Texas placed ninth with 144 points at the 2014 NCAA Championships in Minneapolis. UT has placed ninth at the last three NCAA Championship meets and has finished among the top-10 at four straight NCAA Championships.
In addition to its nine national championships, Texas has registered three NCAA runner-up finishes and three third-place showings. Texas has finished in the top-five at 14 of 31 NCAA Championship meets, most recently in 2009.
The Longhorns have won 70 NCAA individual and relay championships, good for No. 4 all-time. Laura Sogar won UT's most recent NCAA individual swimming crown in 2013 (200 breaststroke). Texas' last NCAA diving champion was Jessica Livingston in 2007 (platform).
Texas boasts the most NCAA titles in the 200 backstroke (seven), 200 freestyle relay (nine), three-meter diving (T-1st with four) and platform diving (T-1st with four).
MORE ON TEXAS' NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS QUALIFIERS
Senior Sarah Denninghoff will compete in her second NCAA meet as a Longhorn after transferring from Arizona following her sophomore season. The Tucson native is seeded 13th nationally in the 100-yard backstroke (52.06) and 11th in the 200 backstroke (1:52.61).
Senior Gretchen Jaques, one of only two Longhorns ever to clear 59 seconds in the 100 breaststroke, is seeded fourth in the event at 58.71, less than three-tenths of a second behind top seed Molly Hannis of Tennessee. Jaques is seeded ninth in the 200 breaststroke at 2:08.57.
Senior Kelsey LeNeave earned her first individual All-America honor last season in the 200 freestyle. The Conroe native collected her four NCAA Championships invitation by way of her No. 19 national mark in the 200 butterfly (1:55.76) and her No. 27 national mark in the 100 butterfly (52.41).
Senior Kaitlin Pawlowicz is seeded 11th in the 1,650 freestyle, 28th in the 400 IM (4:10.82) and 36th in the 500 freestyle at 4:42.51. In December, Pawlowicz became the first Longhorn to clear 16 minutes in that event since Tiffany Cohen in 1985.
Sophomore Madisyn Cox enters her second NCAA Championship meet as the fifth seed in the 400 IM (4:05.08) and the ninth seed in the 200 IM (1:56.16). The Lubbock native earned honorable mention All-America honors in the 200 IM as a freshman.
Sophomore Tasija Karosas makes her second NCAA Championships appearance as the 14th seed in the 200 backstroke (1:52.74) and the 21st seed in the 100 backstroke (52.49).
Freshman Rebecca Millard earned her postseason invite by way of her 48.84 in the 100 freestyle, good for the 36th national seed.
Freshman Mimi Schneider holds the 29th seed in the 50 freestyle (22.32).
Senior diver Emma Ivory-Ganja will make her fourth NCAA Championships appearance and second as a Longhorn. Ivory-Ganja, the 2014 NCAA runner-up on platform, will compete in all three diving events this week.
Sophomore Murphy Bromberg brings significant momentum to her second NCAA Championship competition. The Bexley, Ohio, native produced a Big 12 record of 411.30 points on platform at the Big 12 Championships before placing second in the event at the NCAA Zone "D" Diving Meet. Bromberg won the Big 12 title on three-meter and went on to win three-meter at the Zone meet.
Junior Meghan Houston will compete in her first NCAA Championship meet this week on the one- and three-meter springboards.
TEXAS WINS THIRD STRAIGHT BIG 12 TITLE
Texas completed its first sweep of the Big 12 Championships and claimed its third straight team title last month at the conference meet in Austin. The Longhorns won the team crown with 1,082.5 points.
The swimming coaches voted senior Gretchen Jaques as the Women's Swimmer of the Meet and sophomore Murphy Bromberg was named the Women's Diver of the Meet. Coaches selected Matt Scoggin as the Women's Diving Coach of the Meet.
LONGHORNS IMPRESS AT TEXAS INVITE
Texas produced strong swims at their annual Texas Invitational (Dec. 4-6) at UT's Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
Texas qualified its 200 free and 400 medley relays for the NCAA Championships on the first day of the Invite. Day two saw senior Gretchen Jaques become the second Longhorn ever to clear 59 seconds in the breaststroke. Jaques clocked 58.94 in prelims and won the event in the finals at 58.78, good for a NCAA automatic-qualifying cut.
Senior Kaitlin Pawlowicz opened day three of the Invite with an historic swim and became the first Longhorn in nearly 30 years to clear 16 minutes in the 1,650 freestyle. She clipped nearly 10 seconds off of her personal best and placed third in the event at 15:57.37. The swim ranked her as the third-fastest Longhorn ever in the event.
Redshirt senior Sarah Denninghoff nearly claimed the school record in the 200 backstroke and won the event in 1:52.61. Senior Kelsey LeNeave won the 200 butterfly in a personal-best time of 1:55.76.
COX RETURNS FROM FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
All-America sophomore Madisyn Cox rejoined the team after December's Texas Invitational to compete for the United States at the FINA Short Course World Championships.
The Lubbock native helped the Americans to fifth place in the 800m freestyle relay at the bi-annual meet. The meet marked Cox's first swim in an international event for the United States.
DIVERS CAP PRODUCTIVE FALL IN AUSTIN AND COLUMBUS
The Texas divers swept all three boards at November's UT Diving Invite before producing solid performances in December at the USA Diving Winter National Championships in Columbus, Ohio.
Senior Emma Ivory-Ganja kicked off the UT Diving Invite with a victory on the three-meter board and logged a personal best of 395.40 points. Junior Meghan Houston won her second consecutive one-meter title and totaled 304.25 points. Sophomore Murphy Bromberg completed the Longhorns' sweep with 360.70 points in the platform event.
Ivory-Ganja and Bromberg teamed up to place second in the platform synchro finals at the USA Diving Winter Nationals. Bromberg took second place in the individual platform event, while Ivory-Ganja added an eighth-place finish in the three-meter final with 834 points.
MORE ON THE LONGHORNS
- Texas returned 20 swimmers and divers, including eight All-Americans, from the 2013-14 squad that won the Big 12 Championship and placed ninth at the NCAA Championships.
- Senior diver Emma Ivory-Ganja, now in her second season at Texas after transferring from UCLA, earned All-America honors on all three boards at the 2014 NCAA Championships. Ivory-Ganja was the NCAA runner-up on platform and placed seventh in the three-meter event at the NCAA meet. Sophomore Murphy Bromberg joins Ivory-Ganja as an All-American on three-meter last season.
- Sophomore swimmer Madisyn Cox earned honorable mention All-America honors as a freshman in the 200 IM and won her first Big 12 title in that event last February.
- Senior swimmer Sarah Denninghoff returns after sitting out last season as a medical redshirt. The 13-time All-American placed eighth in the 200 backstroke at the 2013 NCAA Championships in her first season as a Longhorn after transferring from Arizona.
- Versatile senior swimmer Gretchen Jaques gives Texas options in the sprint breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle events. The Californian joined current teammate Brynne Wong and former teammates Lily Moldenhauer and Ellen Lobb to tie the school record and place sixth in the 200 medley relay last season at the NCAA Championships. Jaques also scored individually last season in the 100 breaststroke.
- Sophomore swimmer Tasija Karosas joined teammate Kelsey LeNeave to help Texas place ninth in the 800 freestyle relay at the NCAA Championships. Karosas won her first Big 12 title last March with a personal best of 1:53.49 in the 200 backstroke. LeNeave scored her first individual points at an NCAA Championship last March with her 16th-place finish in the 200 freestyle.
- Four-time NCAA Championships qualifier Kaitlin Pawlowicz returns after posting top-three finishes in the 500 freestyle and the 400 IM at 2014 Big 12 Championships.
Players Mentioned
