Hamperian Earns All-America Honorable Mention in 1-meter Dive
Thursday Prelims Results Thursday Finals Results
ATLANTA – Kentucky women’s swimming and diving wrapped up the second day of the 2016 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on Thursday, with one Wildcat moving past the prelims as Rebecca Hamperian finished 11th overall on the 1-meter springboard. Kentucky currently sits at 23rd in the nation with 10 points, while the leaderboard is paced by Southeastern Conference foe Georgia.
Hamperian earned the third All-America distinction of her career and first honorable mention, earning a spot in the consolation final with her prelims performance of 296.85 points. She posted a consistent performance in the B finals with 295.50 points to take third in the consolation final and 11th overall. In both rounds, Hamperian’s highest yielding dive was her final forward 2.5 somersault pike, which scored more than 55 points in both the prelims and B final. Courtney Clark made her first national appearance in the event, finishing 48th with 199.75 points.
The fastest swim of the day for the Wildcats was the 400 medley relay, which matched the Kentucky record of 3:33.94 set last year by Danielle Galyer, Sam Shaheen, Christina Bechtel and Abby Myers. The time was good for 15th in the nation in 2015, but a faster field resulted in a 19th place finish for Galyer, Kendra Crew, Haley McInerny and Geena Freriks. Galyer’s leadoff split of 51.78 was just .02 off her school record in the 100 back, while Crew and Freriks swam their fastest splits of the season.
Freriks also competed in the 500 free prelims, finishing 39th overall in 4:44.72 for the second-fastest swim of her career. Kendal Casey finished 49th in 4:46.51, and Kathryn Painter posted a 4:50.11 for 66th. In the other individual event for Kentucky, Bridgette Alexander swam her fastest 200 IM of the season and the second-fastest of her career in 1:59.82, good for 46th in the prelims.
Tomorrow’s session will begin with prelims at 10 a.m. ET with finals to follow at 6 p.m. Painter will start things off with the 400 IM, followed by Freriks and Casey in the 200 free, Crew in the 100 breast, and both Galyer and Alexander in the 100 back. Hamperian will compete in the 3-meter dive prelims, which is slated to begin at 12:30 p.m.
?ESPN3.com will live stream the finals sessions of the NCAA Championships on Friday and Saturday. Wednesday’s evening session, Thursday’s sessions, along with the morning sessions on Friday and Saturday, will be streamed live on NCAA.com. Additionally, ESPNU will air a two-hour broadcast via tape delay at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday, March 29. Live results are available here. ?
For the latest on the Kentucky swimming and diving program, follow @UKSwimDive on Twitter, on Facebook at Facebook.com/UKSwimDive, and on the web at ukathletics.com.
