The SMU women finished a mere two points out of the top 10 at the NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships over the weekend, and instead settled for 11th at the three-day competition in Columbus, Ohio.
The Conference USA champions entered the meet ranked No. 14 and had to rally to get within striking distance of the top 10 on the event’s final day.
The Mustangs, led by strong performances from their relay teams, finished Thursday in 17th place.
Senior Anja Carman highlighted the day when she broke the school record in the 100-yard backstroke portion of the 400 medley relay. She finished in 53.11, guiding her team to a season-best 3:35.77 in the preliminary round. The 400 medley team finished 10th in the finals.
Candace Blackman, Jennifer Blackman, Sascha Van den Branden and Petra Klosova guided the Mustangs to a 12th place finish in the 200 freestyle relay.
SMU’s 200 medley relay team set a school record to help push the Mustangs to 13th at the end of Friday. Carman teamed with Klosova, Devon Callaghan and Elzanne Werth to swim a 1:39.34 in the morning’s preliminary round. They slowed a notch in the finals but still finished in 1:40.04, putting them in 14th place.
Jennifer Blackman, Candace Blackman, Klosova and Van den Branden finished sixth in the 800 freestyle relay, giving the team 26 points. Carman and Klosova finished in eighth and 12th, respectively, in the 100 backstroke, inching their team closer to the top 10. Jennifer Blackman finished 10th in the 200 freestyle, and Werth swam a career best 53.54 in the 100 butterfly.
The Mustangs finished strong on Saturday but didn’t get the extra boost they needed to achieve 10th place.
Jennifer Blackman, Candace Blackman, Klosova and Van den Branden teamed for the third day in a row, setting a record time in the 400 freestyle relay. Their time of 3:14.86 broke a school record set in 2006 by more than two seconds. The quartet finished sixth in the event, giving the Mustangs 26 points.
Carman finished the 200 backstroke in 1:54.85, earning SMU nine points. Freshman Audra Egenolf took seventh in the diving portion, tallying a 233.55 in the finals.
SMU’s official spring season ended on Saturday, but the team will continue to compete in hopes of qualifying individuals for the U.S. Olympic Trials.
The U.S. Grand Prix is the first post-spring season event on the calendar. It is set to run April 3-5 in Palo Alto, Calif.
