Six Terps Advance to Championship Finals
2/17/2006 7:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming & Diving
Feb. 17, 2006
College Park, Md. - The defending ACC Champion Maryland women's swimming and diving team will have six chances to medal in tonight's finals. Two swimmers recorded NCAA B-cut standard times, while three others set personal records for their events.
Senior Krisztina Kovacs (Budapest, Hungary) set a season record with her B-cut time of 1:02.61 in the 100 breast, just .05 seconds from her career best and good for second place in tonight's final.
Junior Sasha Malanina (Volgograd, Russia) swam to a season-best time in the 400 IM (4:18.98, good for an NCAA B-cut standard), and will be the third seed in tonight's final.
Senior Barbara Sumrall (Chattanooga, Tenn.) and sophomore Gigi deToll (Culpeper, Va.) will be the fifth and sixth seeds in the 100 fly final tonight. Sumrall swam to a season-best 55.53, while deToll also set a season mark with her time of 55.62.
Junior Natalie Ferdinand (St. Thomas, Barbados) established a career mark with her mark of 57.26 in the 100 back, good for seventh place in tonight's final. She was closely followed by Sumrall, who also set a career record with her time of 57.32, good for the eighth seed in the final.
Several other Terps will be swimming in tonight's consolation finals. Sophomore Katarina Csomova (Komarno, Slovakia) finished 19th in the 100 breast thanks to a career-record 1:06.87 time. She was trailed by Sophomore Emily Smoak (Salisbury, Md.), who placed 20th with her season-best 1:06.94.
Junior Kaleena Laputka (Shamong, N.J.) is the 17th seed in the 100 back thanks to a 58.09 mark, her best time of the year. Sophomore Maya Finkler (Rishon-le-zion, Israel) finished 14th in the 200 free prelims with a season-best 1:50.85.
Three Terps will participate in the consolation finals of the 400 IM. All set season marks. Senior Inbal Levavi (Kibutz Givat Haim, Israel) finished 12th with a time of 4:25.06. Sohomore Kirsten Jones (Lafayette Hill, Pa.) will be the 16th seed thanks to her swim of 4:27.61, and sophomore Julie O'Brien (Damascus, Md.) finished 20th with a time of 4:30.04.
Swimming competition restarts tonight at the Natatorium of the Campus Recreation Center in College Park at 7pm. In the interim, the men's 1-meter diving and women's 3-meter diving events will be held. In addition to the finals of all the morning's events, the 400 medley relay will be swum tonight to conclude the action.
