Swimming: West Virginia Closes Out Weekend
December 07, 2008 05:57 PM | General
By Grant Dovey for MSNsportsNET.com
December 7, 2008
| Men's Swimming & Diving Georgia - 1407 Harvard - 688 Denver - 643 Clemson - 387 West Virginia - 383 Women's Swimming & Diving: Georgia - 1459.5 California - 766.5 Harvard - 418 Clemson - 389 Denver - 372 West Virginia - 229 Gabrielsen Natatorium Athens, Ga. |
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 Full Meet Results |
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| Summary | ||||||||
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| First Place Finishes - Preliminaries | ||||||||
| Pablo Marmolejo | 200 fly | 1:44.74 | ||||||
| Michael Walker | 200 breast | 1:57.92 | ||||||
| Stephanie Shupe Shaunna Purtell Morgan Callaway Kayla Andrews |
400 free relay |
3:22.90 | ||||||
| Top WVU Swimmers | ||||||||
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - On the final day of competition at the Georgia Invitational, the West Virginia University men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams received three NCAA “B” cut times from seniors Pablo Marmolejo and Michael Walker and junior Kayla Andrews.
Due to the student-athletes obligations to finals this coming week at WVU the Mountaineers were forced to leave early from Athens. West Virginia completed the preliminary rounds and then swam in the 1650 free in the finals.
“We had our best preliminary session this morning on the hardest day of a three day meet,” Coach Vic Riggs says. “Both teams swam with a lot of heart and determination this morning knowing they only had one shot today.”
Marmolejo received the “B” cut time with his first-place (1:44.74) finish in the 200 fly in the preliminary round. Freshman Martin Vanis finished in the top heat as well by coming in seventh-place (1:51.25).
Andrews qualified for a bid in the 100 free preliminaries, where she finished in third-place (49.07). Fellow juniors Shaunna Purtell and Stephanie Shupe finished in 14th (51.44) and 15th place (51.51), respectively.
“I am very pleased with how we swam from top to bottom this past weekend,” Riggs says. “We had some very special swims over the weekend and accomplished our goal of having some people make the NCAA ‘B’ cuts and several were close to ‘A’ cuts.”
The “B” cut time by Walker was earned with a first-place (1:57.92) finish in the preliminary round for the 200 breast. Junior George Farquhar also finished in the top heat, coming in seventh place (2:05.28). Freshman Jack Greenhalgh would have also joined his teammates in the finals with an eighth-place (2:06.17) finish.
Walker also swam in the 200 back preliminary where he finished in fourth place (1:47.70). Junior Tim Field qualified for the B – finals in the event with his ninth-place (1:49.04) overall finish.
In the 100 free preliminaries freshman Brad Eichenseer finished in 14th place (46.50), with senior Payton Brooks trailing Eichenseer closely for a tie in 15th place (46.65).
Justin Galbreath, a junior, was only one of three Mountaineer men who got to swim in the finals with his participation in 1650 free. Galbreath swam in the A – finals and finished in seventh-place (15:42.18). Freshman Eric Johnson and Ian Stavros also swam in the 1650 free.
For the women, junior Morgan Callaway swam in the 200 back preliminaries and finished in eleventh-place (2:01.80) overall which would have put her in the B – finals.
In the preliminaries for the 200 breast, senior Isabel Perez finished in 12th-place (2:22.70) and freshman Jaryn Studer finished in 16th-place (2:24.93).
Senior Lindsay Largo swam in the B – finals of the 1650 free and finished in ninth-place (16:46.77) overall. Largo was the only Mountaineer to swim in that event.
“This weekend was a good indication and confidence builder of what both teams can do at the BIG EAST Championships,” Riggs says. “With a little luck we could have had five swimmers qualify for NCAA Championships which is five more than we had at this time last year.”
West Virginia will now be training until it travels to Tucson, Ariz., to participate in a training camp with Arizona from Dec. 30-Jan. 9. The Mountaineers and Wildcats will face off in a dual meet on Jan. 8 at 4 p.m. at the Hillenbrand Aquatic Center.
