The University of Wisconsin men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams capped off a successful three-day performance Saturday at the Texas Invitational by adding to their growing total of NCAA qualifying marks.

“I thought that we got a lot accomplished at the meet,” Wisconsin head coach Eric Hansen said. “I was really happy with our performance. We’ve got a lot we can work on over Christmas break, but this meet confirmed to me that we can accomplish our goals that we set at the beginning of the season.”

Junior Carly Piper finished off her productive invitational by earning her third NCAA “A” cut in as many days. Piper’s time of 16:12.48 in the 1650-yard freestyle automatically qualified her for nationals. She also added a mark of 50.30 in the 100-yard free to achieve a provisional qualifying standard.

Piper’s effort in the 100 free headed a strong UW performance in the event as four Badgers earned “B” cuts. Sarah Hernandez (50.03), Bethany Pendleton (50.32) and Shannon VanCuren (50.77) also surpassed the provisional mark. Hernandez’s time came on the leadoff leg of the 400-yard freestyle relay, which also finished in a “B” time of 3:19.45.

Freshman Susan Johnson added an impressive performance in the 200-yard backstroke during the evening’s time trials. Her time of 1:57.10 set a new school record and earned her an automatic qualifying standard to the NCAA championships. The mark surpassed the previous record of 1:57.30 set by Sarah McCauley one year ago.

Amalia Sarnecki contributed another outstanding performance during the time trials, finishing in 2:13.55 in the 200-yard breaststroke to post an “A” cut. Emily Pisula added a provisional qualifying mark of 2:17.63 in the event.

On the men’s side, it was three days and three school records for Adam Mania. The junior continued his breakout season by shattering his previous mark in the 200 back by nearly a second with a time of 1:44.58 to earn a “B” cut. He also surpassed the provisional standard in the 100 free (44.30) as the leadoff leg on the 400-free relay squad, which also earned a “B” mark (2:55.66).

Senior Matt Marshall fell just short of breaking a 10-year-old school record in the 200-yard butterfly, but still provisionally qualified for the NCAA meet with his mark of 1:46.50. Classmate Dale Rogers battled back from a bout with illness to add a “B” cut in 100 free (44.69), as did Pat Torpey in the 200 fly (1:47.89) and Tim Liebhold in the 200 back (1:47.04).

Women’s divers Amanda Witte (219.20) and Cassie Kubly (211.05) finished 12th and 13th, respectively, on the one-meter diving board.

Wisconsin is now off until the beginning of January when it will travel to Hawaii for its annual training trip. The Badgers will compete in the Rainbow Classic on Jan. 2 before taking on the University of Hawaii on Jan. 9.

-compiled from staff reports