GREENSBORO, N.C. – Two individual All-American performances and one All-American relay highlight the final two days of SCAC feats at the 2023 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships last weekend.
Trinity University first-year Neely Burns capped off her outstanding debut at the NCAA Championships with her third All-American performance of the meet, finishing eighth in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:17.03. Burns qualified seventh with an SCAC open record time of 2:16.49. Her performance marked the first time in SCAC history an individual has earned three All-American honors in three different individual events at the same championship. Burns’ highlight came on Thursday night, when she finished second in the 400-yard IM.
Colorado College’s Kate Brush secured her second All-American honor of the week by claiming ninth in the 200-yard butterfly to solidify Honorable Mention accolades. Brush, who earlier in the week earned All-American honors in the 100-yard butterfly by finishing seventh, hit the wall in an SCAC open record time of 2:02.06 to finish ninth. Brush is the first swimmer in Colorado College program history to earn multiple All-American honors in the same year.
Other individual highlights Austin College junior Sammi Thiele finished 23rd in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 56.73. Trinity’s Josie Gillentine finished 25th in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:05.28), while her teammate Emma Hagan finished 56th in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 53.41.
In the diving well, Trinity’s Alexis Radhakrishnan finished 19th in the women’s 1-meter competition with a score of 370.30.
The final All-American performance came in the 800-yard freestyle relay when the Trinity quartet of Burns, Hagan, Audrey Jacobson and Erica Peterson earned Honorable Mention AA honors, finishing 16th with a time of 7:37.02.
Trinity finished with a total of 42 points to earn a 19th-place team finish, tying the highest SCAC team finish since the Tigers took home 19th at the 2017 Championships. Colorado College finished with 20 points to secure a top-25 finish in 25th.
