Women’s Swim & Dive climbs to second on third day of NCAA Championships

Friday, March 22

Athens, Ga.

Prelims: 9 a.m. CT | Finals: 5 p.m. CT

University of Texas

NCAA Championships

Women’s Swim & Dive climbs to second on third day of NCAA Championships

03.22.2024 | Women's Swimming and Diving

Day 3 FInals Results Day 4 Prelim Heat Sheet

The Longhorns established two program records and had eight top-five performances on the third day of the national meet.

ATHENS, Ga. – Texas Women's Swimming and Diving is in second place at the NCAA Championships following the third day of the four-day meet at the Gabrielson Natatorium. Texas has registered 319 points through the first 14 events, trailing only Virginia (360.50) while holding a 52-point lead over Florida (267). The Longhorns broke program records in the 100 fly and 400 medley relay and posted eight top-five results during Friday's competition.

The finals session was highlighted by the Longhorns' performance in the 100 fly as Texas had three swimmers place in the top four. Emma Sticklen earned silver with a program-record swim of 49.70, breaking own mark of 49.73 established during the preliminary round. Olivia Bray captured bronze with a swim of 50.52 and Kelly Pash took fourth in 50.55.

Texas had a pair of swimmers in the 100 breast championship final with Anna Elendt placing fourth in 57.01 and Lydia Jacoby touching the wall fifth with a season-best mark of 57.13. Elendt's time was the second-fastest in program history, just off her Texas record of 56.88.

In the diving well, the Longhorns had two performers compete in the 3-meter championship final. Hailey Hernandez collected the bronze with 342.15 points, three-tenths of a point behind the runner-up. It marked her second top-three performance in as many nights after claiming the silver on 1-meter on Thursday night. Bridget O'Neil picked up her second All-American accolade of the meet with a fifth-place performance, scoring 319.90 points.

The Longhorns closed out the night in record-breaking fashion, as the quartet of Berit Berglund, Elendt, Sticklen and Pash set a new Texas record in the 400 medley relay, winning silver with a time of 3:24.92. Berglund opened the race splitting 51.51 and had Texas in seventh before giving way to Elendt, who pushed the Longhorns to fifth with a breaststroke split of 56.98. Sticklen swam 49.67 in the fly to propel UT into second and Pash was able to hold onto the spot with a 46.76 free leg for the program record.

Earlier in the meet, Campbell Stoll opened the evening session with a victory in the 400 IM consolation final, touching the wall in 4:03.89 to place ninth overall. The time was a career-best and the eighth-fastest in UT history, moving the freshman to third on Texas' all-time performer list. Fellow freshman Angie Coe joined Stoll in the consolation final, swimming a career-best 4:06.32 to place 13th overall.

Erin Gemmell added a 10th-place result in the 200 free, posting a career-best time in the consolation final with a swim of 1:43.09 that is the 13th-fastest performance in Texas history.

Texas had three swimmers race in the 100 back consolation final with Berglund earning the win to finish ninth overall, touching the wall with a career-best time of 50.70, the fifth-fastest time in Texas history. Bray, racing in her second individual event of the night, placed 11th overall in 51.15 and Emma Kern finished 15th with a personal-best time of 51.45, climbing to sixth on UT's all-time performer list in the event.

The Longhorns conclude competition at the NCAA Championships on Saturday, March 23 at the Gabrielson Natatorium. Saturday's action will feature competition in the 1,650-yard freestyle, 200-yard backstroke, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard breaststroke, 200-yard butterfly, platform diving and the 400-yard freestyle relay. Prelims start at 9 a.m. CT with the finals sessions scheduled to get underway each day at 5 p.m. CT. All prelim and finals sessions will be streamed live on ESPN+.

MEET NOTES

Sticklen is the only Longhorn to swim sub-50 seconds in the 100 fly and has now accomplish the feat three times.
The trio of Sticklen, Pash and Bray have tallied the top-30 100 fly performances in program history.
Ava Longi posted a 100 fly prelim swim of 51.42, the 18th-fastest time in the session, narrowly missing advancing to the consolation final by eight-hundredths of a second.

2024 NCAA Championships – Team Standings after Day 3 (Top 10 teams listed)
1. Virginia – 360.5
2. TEXAS – 319
3. Florida – 267
4. Tennessee – 185
5. Stanford – 177
6. USC – 157
7. Indiana – 138
8. Louisville – 136
9. NC State – 114
10. California – 110

Texas Longhorns 2024 All-Americans
Berit Berglund: 400 medley relay
Olivia Bray: 100 fly, 800 free relay
Grace Cooper: 200 free relay, 200 medley relay
Anna Elendt: 100 breast, 200 medley relay, 400 medley relay
Erin Gemmell: 800 free relay
Hailey Hernandez: 1-meter, 3-meter
Lydia Jacoby: 100 breast
Emma Kern: 200 medley relay
Ava Longi: 200 free relay
Bridget O'Neil: 1-meter, 3-meter
Kelly Pash: 100 fly, 200 IM, 400 medley relay, 200 free relay, 800 free relay
Emma Sticklen: 100 fly, 200 free relay, 200 medley relay, 400 medley relay
Erica Sullivan: 800 free relay