ATLANTA – The Auburn women wrapped up the NCAA Championships on Saturday with all 10 individual qualifiers competing. For some, it was their final swim for the Tigers. For others, it was an experience to build on for the future.
"This is a challenging meet," Auburn head coach Ryan Wochomurka said. "We swam all week long. To have 10 individual qualifiers here, to have five relays here, and for this team that's so young to have an opportunity to understand the level of the game and what we need to do to be competitive with the very best in the country was a great takeaway.
"I'm extremely proud of how we swam and executed and fought all week long."
It was a special day for the three seniors – Carly Cummings, Emily Hetzer and Mykenzie Leehy – who all swam their final race in the orange and blue.
Cummings dropped two seconds from her season-best time in the 200 breaststroke, finishing in 2:10.19 to place 35th overall in prelims. Hetzer also set a season best in the 1650 freestyle with a time of 16:17.20, good for 30th. And Leehy, after finishing tied for 53rd in the 100 freestyle prelims, came back to swim the third leg of Auburn's 400 freestyle relay.
The relay, which also featured Lexie Mulvihill, Rebekah Hamilton and Claudia Thamm, touched the wall fifth in their heat and finished 21st overall.
Meghan Lee and Ellie Waldrep both started the day with strong swims in the 200 backstroke prelims. Lee finished 23rd with a time of 1:53.74 while Waldrep's time of 1:54.58 was her best at Auburn and put the freshman in 36th place.
Fellow freshman Avery Bargeron also finished 36th in the 200 butterfly, swimming a 1:56.49. Four of Auburn's 10 individual qualifiers were freshmen with Waldrep, Bargeron, Mulvihill and Anastasia Makarova.
Virginia scored the most points at the meet to win their second straight national championship. Despite having 10 individual qualifiers, Auburn failed to score at NCAAs.
"It's certainly disappointing in a way to not be on the scoreboard in terms of points, but I think we gained some valuable knowledge and experience for next year," Wochomurka said.
Next week, it will be the men's turn. The NCAA Men's Championship will take place March 23-26 from the same place, the McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta.
Auburn women battle on final day of NCAA Championships
