Parts of this story courtesy of Colorado College Sports Information and Trinity University Sports Information
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Olivia Dilorati of Colorado College took third in the 100 fly at the NCAA Women's Swimming & Diving Championship to lead the four Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference competitors.
Dilorati became the third female swimmer in CC history to earn All-America honors. She also posted the highest finish ever by a CC swimmer at the national meet and broke her own school record in the event with a time of 54.83 seconds.
After posting the fourth-best time in the preliminaries Thursday morning, Dilorati eclipsed her previous CC record of 55.22, set at last month's Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Championships, by nearly half a second.
"What a thrilling race for Olivia," head coach Anne Goodman James said. "We thought she had a 54 in her and she certainly chose the right time to achieve that goal. It was a phenomenal race across the field, and Olivia swam a gutsy last 50 yards to move up into third place. She has had an amazing career, and there is one more race to go before it's complete."
On Wednesday, Dilorati opened the meet by placing 22nd in the preliminaries of the 50-yard freestyle race with a time of 23.65 seconds. Trinity University's Lindsay Hagmann finished two spots behind her with a time of 23.67 seconds.
Trinity's Andrew Theisse competed Thursday as well, finishing 15th in the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:05.66 and earning Honorable Mention All-America honors.
Thiesse solidified a slot in the consolation event with a 15th-place finish in the preliminaries, posting a personal-best time of 4:03.93.
"Andrew gave it all he had tonight, coming up a tad short of his prelim time, but holding his place and getting Trinity on the men's scoreboard," said Head Swimming Coach John Ryan. "He was right in the mix through the butterfly and backstroke legs, but the guys in the middle lanes were better breaststrokers, and opened a little gap on him there. Glad he has a day to recover before he goes to the 200 backstroke. He really had to use this legs, big time, twice today. That's probably where the 10 days out of the water, before moving up from the alternate list, hurt him the most. He did a great job of racing hard today."
On the diving side, Trinity sophomores Danielle Freund and Sarah Kate Mrkonich competed.
Freund won the consolation title with a ninth-place finish, and a score of 429.15 after six dives. Mrkonich placed 14th on the low board, chalking up a mark of 397.75. In Thursday's 11-dive preliminary round, Freund placed ninth, and Mrkonich was 15th.
"They were absolutely outstanding," beamed Diving Coach Stan Randall. "Dani missed the top eight by three points. Had we done that, she probably would have moved up more. Sarah Kate missed one dive, Dani missed one dive. That's out of 17 dives. In the semis, Dani held her own, and won the consolation. Sarah Kate moved up. Nice job by both of them."
Dilorati earned 16 points on Thursday, putting Colorado College in 22nd place on the women's side. Trinity is at 31st with 12 points. On the men's side, Theisse has earned two points for the Tigers.
All five SCAC swimmers and divers in attendance will continue competing later this weekend.
