With the Badger women’s swim and dive team’s success at the Big Ten National Championships, several swimmers are hoping the NCAA calls them to race at the NCAA National Swim and Dive Championship later this month.
From March 15 through March 18, the NCAA Swimming and Dive National Championship is being held in the Allan Jones Aquatic Center at the University of Tennessee.
This year, Wisconsin’s national rank is 21, which is down four slots from last year’s ranking at No. 17.
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At the Big Ten Championship, the Badgers took fourth in overall team standings. Individually, Paige McKenna reigned on top for the 1650-meter free at the Big Ten Championship for the second year in a row. The sophomore finished with a time of 15 minutes, 46.90 seconds, establishing more than a 10-second lead over the second-place finisher.
2020 U.S Olympian, Phoebe Bacon, earned third place in the 100 backstroke with a time of 51.96 seconds. Bacon also placed second in the 200 IM. Her 1:55.06 finish missed first place by one-tenth of a second.
Sophomore Abby Carlson came out victorious in first place with the 500 free. Her race was timed at 4 minutes, 38.15 seconds.
The 800 freestyle relay consisting of Phoebe Bacon, Hazal Ozkan, Mallory Jump and Abby Wanezek earned third place with a time of 7 minutes, 01:39 seconds.
Carlson and McKenna both made Big Ten’s first conference team accolades, while Phoebe Bacon made the second conference team. Additionally, Mikayla Seigal was named a sportsmanish honoree.
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All eyes will be on senior Kate Douglas and the Virginia swim & dive team. Virginia’s women’s swim and dive team is looking for a 3-peat for swim & dive champions.
Douglas currently holds the U.S. Open, NCAA and American Record in the 200 medley relay team, 400 medley relay, 50 freestyle and 200 backstroke.
Other notable teams are Texas and Stanford. Stanford won the national championship three years in a row from 2017-2019. Seven-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky was notably a part of the 2017 team that started a 3-year success path. Now, incredible swimmers like Taylor Ruck are leading the team in records.
For the past two seasons, Texas has consistently ranked in the top three. Texas is also the runner-up from last year’s national championship. Many people are going to be looking to see if they can give that final push to land them in first place. Teammate Kelly Pash helps lead the way for her team in short-length races like the 100 free, 200 and 400 IM.
The Allan Jones Aquatic Center will be packed with incredible swimmers from Wisconsin and beyond looking to get their hands on new records or hardware for their careers.
