March 19, 1998

MINNEAPOLIS – The University of Kentucky women’s swimming and diving team picked up 10 points during the first day’s competition at the 1998 NCAA Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships, held at the University of Minnesota.

Senior All-American Beth Leake turned in a 12th-place finish on the one-meter springboard with a score of 386.00, earning five points for the Wildcats. UK garnered its other five points in the 200 Freestyle Relay, where the team of Jaime Siegele, Jenny Priester, Rachel Komisarz and Annabel Kosten registered a tie for 14th-place finish with a time of 1:33.08. The Wildcats were even with UCLA, forcing the teams to split the six and four points set aside for 14th and 15th places, respectively.

Freshman Melissa Olson barely missed picking up points for the Wildcats as she turned in a 20th-place showing in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:01.91. The 400 medley relay team of Olson, Jennifer Clifford, Komisarz and Kosten also just missed out on scoring, finishing 19th with a time 3:46.20. Leigh Dalton was 345th in the prelims of the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:52.11, while Kosten was 38th in the 50 freestyle preliminaries with a mark of 23.36.

The NCAA Championships continue Friday with eight events scheduled beginning at 11 a.m.