Women’s NCAA S&D Championships start Wednesday

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AUBURN, Ala. (auburntigers.com) – The time is almost here. The 2016 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships will begin on Wednesday, March. 23, in Atlanta at the Georgia Tech’s McAuley Aquatic Center. Auburn, which has won five titles in program history, will send 11 swimmers to the championships.

Auburn is coming off of a fourth-place finish at the SEC meet, its fifth top-4 finish in the last seven years.

“Our expectation has been the same all year, just get better from last year,” Auburn head coach Brett Hawke said. “We’ve got more women qualified for the meet this year and we finished higher at the SEC Championships. So far we are hitting our goals.”

Auburn’s 11 qualified swimmers are Carolina Baddock, Ashton Ellzey, Erin Falconer, Annie Lazor, Natasha Lloyd, Ashley Neidigh, Bailey Nero, Sarah Reyolds, Aly Tetzloff, Zoe Thatcher and Jillian Vitarius. Three of the 11 are freshman (Falconer, Neor and Tetzloff) and three are seniors (Lazor, Reynolds and Vitarius).

“It’s nice when you can take young talent but also have the experience of the seniors,” Hawke said. “There is a good mix of experience and youth. We are excited about the team we are taking.”

Swimming freestyle events will be Ellzey (50), Falconer (200), Neidigh (1,650), Tetzloff (50 and 100) and Thatcher (500). Reynolds and Vitarius will swim the 100 backstroke while Baddock and Vitarius will swim the 200 backstroke. Lazor and Lloyd will both swim both the 100 and 200 breaststrokes and Tetzloff will swim the 100 butterfly and Nero the 200 butterfly. Thatcher will also swim the 400 IM.

The championships begin on Wednesday with the 800 freestyle relay finals at 6 p.m. Thursday’s events will be the 200 free relay, 500 freestyle, 200 IM, 50 free, 400 medley relay and 1-meter diving. Friday’s contested events are the 400 IM, the 100 butterfly, the 200 freestyle, the 100 breaststroke, the 100 backstroke, 3-meter diving and the 200 medley relay. The championships conclude on Saturday with the 1650 freestyle, 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, platform diving and the 400 free relay.

Prelims for each session begin at 10 a.m. ET and finals at 6 p.m.