NCAA Division III Day Three Team Recaps

Carleton Women: Three Days, Three All-American Honorable Mention Relays
Day three at the 2009 NCAA Division III Swimming Championships featured a lighter schedule for the Knights, who posted their third All-America honorable mention relay in as many days. Carleton had only two individual swims this morning, but the 800-yard freestyle relay grabbed the spotlight on Friday.

The relay--comprised of Maggie Alexander (Fy./Tigard, Ore./Tualatin); Kale Zicafoose (So./Omaha, Neb./Westside); Kaarin Taylor (Sr./Gainesville, Fla.) and Becky Alexander (Sr./Tigard, Ore./Tualatin)--finished 15th with a time of 7:44.29, the third-fastest in school history.

Maggie Alexander led off the race with a split of 1:51.72, the sixth-fastest opening leg in the field and the second-fastest swim of her career, trailing only Thursday night’s performance in finishing ninth in the 200-yard freestyle. As a unit, the Knights chopped a whopping 4.65 seconds off their seed time.

In solo action Zicafoose was 23rd in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 58.07, and Kate Alexander (Jr./Tigard, Ore./Tualatin) ranked 17th after the morning swim with a personal-best time of 1:05.27. She was edged by 0.03 seconds for the 16th slot and a spot in the consolation finals.

The Knights have a busier final day of action from the University of Minnesota Aquatics Center. Becky Alexander will be the first in the water, racing in the 100-yard freestyle. Both Maggie Alexander and Zicafoose will contend in the 200-yard backstroke where they are seeded sixth and 11th respectively. Kate Alexander will take part in the 200-yard breaststroke and the weekend concludes with the 400-yard freestyle relay.

Carleton is currently 20th out of 54 schools to score points in the team competition.

St. Mary’s: McDowell Sets School Record at NCAAs
Brie McDowell (Doylestown, Pa./Hatboro-Horsham) captured the consolation finals for ninth overall in the 100 backstroke event Friday night in record fashion at the 2009 NCAA Division III Men’s & Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center.
 
The 2009 Capital Athletic Conference Women’s Swimmer-of-the-Year, McDowell notched her third All-America career honor as she posted a school record-setting time of 56.23 in the 100 back, surpassing her own mark of 56.62 that she set just a little over a month ago at the CAC championships.
 
The senior captain had finished the prelims of the 100 back in ninth in 56.93.  McDowell had entered the competition seeded third in the event.
 
McDowell will wrap up her Seahawk career today as she competes in her main event, the 200 backstroke.  She enters the competition as the top seed with her school mark of 2:00.92, which shattered the NCAA automatic qualifying mark of 2:04.38.  If she advances to tonight’s finals, McDowell will secure her fourth career All-America award.
 
Junior Rachel Hotchko (Yakima, Wash./A.C. Davis), who is making her second consecutive trip to the NCAAs, will close out her trip today as well as Hotchko competes in the 100 freestyle event.
 
This is the fourth consecutive season that St. Mary’s has been represented at the NCAA championships.  The championships are being hosted by Macalester College at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center and competition will wrap up this Saturday with the crowning of the team champions.  It is the first-time ever that the men’s and women’s swimming championships are being held at the same time.

Washington College: Glasser Earns All-America Status at NCAA's
Washington College sophomore Rachel Glasser (Silver Spring, MD/Springbrook) earned All-America status by finishing third overall in the 200 butterfly at the NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championships today in Minneapolis, MN.

In the preliminaries of the 200 butterfly, Glasser swam a 2:04.34 to land a spot in the finals and assure herself of All-America status. In the finals, Glasser's third-place time of 2:03.13 was just one one-thousandth of a second off her own school record.

Yesterday at the NCAA Division III Championships, Glasser finished 18th in the preliminaries of the 100 butterfly in 57.50 and on Monday she was 46th in the 500 freestyle in 5:07.81.

Glasser earned All-America honorable mention status in the 200 butterfly at the 2008 NCAA Division III Championships.