Asia Seidt Earns First-Team All-America Honors in 200 IM
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Kentucky women’s swimming and diving team wrapped up day two of the 2018 NCAA Championships on Thursday evening, picking up two additional All-American honors in the process. The Wildcats sit in 16th in the team standings with 32 points.
“It was a great day of racing for the Cats,” said Kentucky head coach Lars Jorgensen. “We’ve got two really big days ahead of us. I thought probably just maybe one or two swims that could’ve been better today, but overall it was a good day. We’ve got a lot of points left on the board these next two days so we’re gonna come out fighting like Cats.”
Thursday evening was highlighted by sophomore Asia Seidt who returned to the championship final of the 200-yard individual medley for the second consecutive season. The Louisville, Ky., native placed seventh overall in the event, coming into the wall in 1:53.78 to earn First-Team All-America honors. The performance marked the fourth First-Team All-America distinction of her career. A season ago, Seidt finished eighth in the event in 1:55.19.
“Asia’s so tough,” added Jorgensen. “She’s such a competitive racer. I’m really proud of her. Any time you make an NCAA final is significant. All-American agagin. I think her better events are yet to come, so we’re going to give it a good go here.”
Kentucky’s 400 medley relay earned All-America honorable mention as the foursome of Bridgette Alexander, Bailey Bonnett, Seidt and Geena Freriks teamed up to finish fifth in the consolation final and 13th overall with a time of 3:31.44.
Three Wildcats competed in the 500 freestyle prelims, with Freriks finishing just outside of the consolation final coming in 18th overall with a time of 4:39.10.
The 2018 NCAA Championships will resume tomorrow morning, with prelims beginning at 9 a.m. ET and finals following at 5 p.m. Events will include the 400 IM, 100 butterfly, 200 free, 100 breaststroke, 100 backstroke, 200 medley relay and the 3-meter springboard. The Wildcats have nine entries on Friday overall.
ESPNU will broadcast live the championship finals session Friday. The finals session on Saturday will be streamed live by ESPN3 starting at 6 p.m. Prelims sessions can be streamed on the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships microsite at www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com. Tape delayed coverage of the women’s championships will be broadcast on Sunday, March 25 at 4 p.m. on ESPNU.
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.
