EAST MEADOW, N.Y. - Sophomore Maggie Bowen started her 2001 Women's NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships off breaking a nine-year-old NCAA, American and US Open record Thursday night with a first place finish in the 200 individual medley and a time of 1:55.49.

"Maggie just missed the Olympic team last summer and it really turned her swimming around," head coach David Marsh said. "We knew she had a shot (to break the record) and it played out perfectly with her using Shelly Ripple from Stanford, who she grew up swimming against, to push her to this."

Bowen's new record time broke Olympic star Summer Sanders' 1992 record of 1:55.54 from when she swam at Stanford.

"I was so excited when I heard that I had broken the record," Bowen said. "To break an American Record is amazing, but to have it be someone like Summer Sanders' is unbelievable.

"I had a great race and knew in the last half lap that I was going to win, but I had no idea that I was close to the record. I have told people that I was going to break that record and no one believed I could do it."

The team as a whole performed above expectations in day one ending up in first place in the opening day of competition with a score of 121.5, in front of No. 2 Georgia (112.5), No. 3 Texas (107.5), No. 4 Stanford (96.5) and No. 5 Arizona (87).

Auburn picked up twelve All-America honors on day one of the Women's NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships with Maggie Bowen, Eileen Coparropa, Cassidy Maxwell, Cortnee Adams, Robyn Williford, Magda Dyszkiewicz, Taylor Spivey, Becky Short, Laura Swander and Demerae Christianson picking up All-America honors and Heather Kemp, Brook Monroe, Adams and Short adding Honorable Mention All-America honors.

Starting off the meet for the Tigers was the 200-yard free relay team of Becky Short, Eileen Coparropa, Cassidy Maxwell and Cortnee Adams, who captured third place with a time of 1:30.31.

In the 500 free, freshman Magda Dyszkiewicz picked up the fifth spot with a time of 4:42.48, but set her school record time in the prelims Thursday morning at 4:41.93. Also placing for Auburn in the 500 free was freshman Heather Kemp, who finished 14th with a time of 4:49.23.

In the 50 free, Auburn placed three swimmers in the finals with Adams taking 15th (23.13), Short finishing 13th (23.05) and Coparropa placing fifth for the Tigers with a time of 22.60.

The final event of the day was the 400 medley relay team of Spivey, Bowen, Christianson and Coparropa, who finished fourth with a time of 3:36.74.

"We were real pleased this morning," head coach David Marsh said. "The goal is to have a great morning and get better at night. We lost a little ground tonight, but this is our best day in the history of Auburn women's swimming.

"Now we need to just continue to earn points and stay in the hunt from here on out. We didn't expect to be here, but we were ahead on the first day of SECs too and Georgia ended up pulling ahead so we are just trying not to get too excited."