March 22, 2013

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Sophomore swimmer Christina Bechtel made her NCAA Championships debut Friday competing in the 100-butterfly while fellow sophomore Christa Cabot took to the 3-meter springboard on day two of action at the 2013 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships.

Each athlete performed strongly in their preliminary rounds Friday, but neither was able to advance into the top 16 in their event to reach the evening’s finals.

“We came up a little bit short today but the girls performed well,” said head coach Gary Conelly. “Tina moved up two places and went her best preliminary time. Christa made a great run and only a couple of points away from scoring with her 18th place finish.”

Cabot finished just out of the final 16, scoring 307.60, narrowly missing out on advancing. She finished in 18th place and was the second alternate for the event in case of an injury.

Bechtel, swimming in her lone event in the 100-butterfly, was also unable to post a strong enough preliminary score to advance to the evening’s finals. She improved her own personal best preliminary time of 53.06 to earn 25th place.

Friday wraps up competition for Bechtel at the NCAA Championships, but Cabot still will have the opportunity to score points for Kentucky when the women divers move to the tower to dive platform.

Action on day three begins at 11 a.m. at the IU Natatorium with platform diving scheduled for the final event of the first session.