Michigan
NCAA Championships
Michigan Opens NCAA Championships in Fourth Place
3/20/2019 7:13:00 PM | Women's Swimming & Diving
Site: Austin, Texas (Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center)
Event: NCAA Championships (Day 1 of 4)
U-M Team Standing: 4th of 16 Teams (30 points)
Next U-M Event: Thursday, March 21 -- at NCAA Championships - Day Two (Austin, Texas), 9 a.m./5 p.m. (CDT)
AUSTIN, Texas -- The foursome of senior Yirong Bi, senior Siobhán Haughey, senior Catie DeLoof and sophomore Sierra Schmidt of the University of Michigan women's swimming and diving team opened up the NCAA Championships on Wednesday (March 20) with a fourth-place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay (6:54.35), earning All-America honors at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center. After the first session, U-M is in fourth place (30 points). Stanford, who won the event, leads the team race (40 points).
"Thrilled with the start," said head coach Mike Bottom. "We wanted to see where we were at. Not only did we improve upon our seed coming into the race, but we also went faster than we did at Big Tens. Starting out on the podium should give our group a lot of confidence heading into the first full day tomorrow."
The Wolverines came in with the No. 5 seed and won that event at the Big Ten Championships last month (6:54.58). Three of the women from that race were back Wednesday with the only change being Schmidt, who swam anchor. Bi led off in 1:44.81, followed by Haughey in 1:40.98.
U-M climbed to third at the halfway point (3:25.79) and finished fourth as DeLoof (1:42.93) and Schmidt (1:45.63) closed out the relay.
Michigan has scored a top-five finish in three consecutive years at the NCAA Championships, a feat last achieved from 1997-99. U-M was third in 2017 and second in 2018.
The NCAA Championships continue Thursday (March 21) with the first full day of action at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center. Preliminaries begin at 9 a.m. CDT with finals following at 5 p.m. CDT.
TEAM STANDINGS (After Day 1)
1. Stanford 40 2. California 34 3. USC 32 4. MICHIGAN 30 5. Texas 28 6. Louisville 26 7. Wisconsin 24 8. Texas A&M 22 9. Virginia 18 10. Kentucky 14
800-yard Freestyle Relay
1. Stanford 6:47.22P (Katie Drabot, Ella Eastin, Taylor Ruck, Brooke Forde) 4. MICHIGAN 6:54.35 (Yirong Bi, Siobhán Haughey, Catie DeLoof, Sierra Schmidt) A American Record N NCAA Record U U.S. Open Record B Big Ten Record P Pool Record M University of Michigan Record
Players Mentioned
