March 18, 2010
WEST LAFAYETTE, IND. – With a 14th place tap in the 400-medley relay on the first night of competition at the 2010 NCAA Championships, four Kentucky swimmers earned All-America distinction. The quartet of Chatham Penrod, Lindsey Graessle, Megan Pulskamp and Kayla Sergesketter earned a top-16 finish and All-America accolades for their performance.
The squad tapped in 14th with a time of 3:37.56 after qualifying for the race with a preliminary time of 3:36.88 this morning. The Wildcats were just off of Indiana who finished 13th overall with a time of 3:36.31. The women’s preliminary time of 3:36.88 is a new UK school record bettering the 2009 squad’s time by nearly two seconds.
In the finals competition, Penrod took the opening leg of the backstroke discipline and turned in a time of 53.53. Graessle took the breaststroke leg and earned a clip of 1:02.45. Pulskamp was the butterfly portion of the race and turned in a time of 52.45. Sergesketter anchored with freestyle and tapped in a time of 49.13.
This marks the first All-America honors of Graessle’s, Penrod’s and Sergesketter’s careers. Pulskamp now becomes a four-time All-America honoree.
Pulskamp was the lone swimmer among individual competition today. She placed 36th overall in the 50-free during the preliminaries this morning. The senior tapped in a time of 22.85, just off of her season-high clip of 22.73.
Diver Lisa Faulkner was the other UK individual in action today. In her first career NCAA Championships, Faulkner scored 256.65 points and placed 28th on the one-meter board.
After the first night of competition, the Wildcats have scored six points and stand in 27th place.
NCAA.com will stream both sessions of competition on Friday, and the preliminary session on Saturday. ESPN360.com will stream the finals live on Saturday. Additionally, ESPN2 will air a 90-minute show at 1:30 p.m. ET, Tues., April 6.
Preliminary heats will begin each day at 11:00 a.m., while the finals that night will start at 7:00 p.m.
For the most up-to-date information regarding the Kentucky swimming and diving squads please visit UKathletics.com.
