Arianna Vanderpool Wallace leads Auburn’s Team at the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships
Arianna Vanderpool Wallace will lead the Auburn team for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 1 Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships from March 17-19. Vanderpool improved the record for 50yard freestyle at the Southeastern Conference
(SEC) Championships, last month.
Wallace improved the record for 50yard event at the SEC Championship in a time of 21.34 seconds, whereas, she also performed very well in other events. She also set the US Open and NCAA Championship record for 100yard freestyle last year, and won the 2010-11
SEC female ‘Swimmer of the Year’ award.
She will be continuing her dominant performance in the NCAA Championships at the Joe Jamail Swimming Centre, in the University of Texas, Austin. Wallace was very excited about the event as she said, “My freshman year didn't go so well. Last year was a little
bit better. I'm hoping this year will be my best NCAA's.”
The junior swimmer is the nation’s best in the 50yard and 100yard freestyle as she recorded a time of 46.81 seconds in the latter event to improve the eight-year-old NCAA record and four-year-old US Open record held by Natalie Coughlin.
Apart from leading her team at the championships, Vanderpool Wallace will also compete in the events of 100yard butterfly, 50yard freestyle, 100yard freestyle, 200yard freestyle relay, 400yard freestyle relay, 200yard medley relay and the 400yard medley
relay.
She is trying to maximise her attack by participating in the many events, as the Auburn Tigers aim to finish in the top five. Auburn finished eighth on the overall points table last year, but Auburn’s coach, Brett Hawke considers the top five goal quite
easy to achieve.
Hawke praised Vanderpool by saying that her performance was excellent last year and that she has taken the confidence of women to a new level. He also added, “I think she has given them a lot of confidence. You could tell (Wednesday morning) by the look
on her face, she didn't say a lot, but you could see she wants to win here. That's good for some of the younger women on the team to know there is someone on the team who is that driven and focused.”
Vanderpool’s team-member, Caitlin Geary will also have a tough schedule at the championships as she will be participating in three discrete races; the 100yard and 200yard freestyle and 200yard Individual Medley. Another team-mate, Emily Bos will also participate
in a total of five events including two individual and the three relay events. Auburn has one diver, Vennie Dantin and 11 swimmers to take part in the NCAA Championships.
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