Women's NCAA Championships

Stanford Sparked By Fox And Hyman's Record Swims

Nikki Dryden

More than 25 Olympic and World Championship team members competed at this year's American college (NCAA) championships, producing record times and many world class races with an international flair. In the land of handsome athletic scholarships, schools actively recruit foreign talent to add power and prestige to top-notch teams, and this year's competition saw over 10 countries represented.

Held over three days in Minneapolis (March 19-21), the NCAA Championships have the distinction of being swum in short course yard pools, thereby upping the tempo a notch over short course metres. The majority of swimmers who competed in Perth were able to back up their long course performances with fast swims and aggressive racing in Minneapolis. With six college teams in contention for the team title, the meet proved competitive and exciting.

The fastest meet in the world proved its stuff from the opening event, too fast in fact for the top seed Southern Methodist, who false started in the final of the 200 freestyle relay. With the second, third, and fourth teams all within 40 points by the last night, this mistake cost SMU a chance at second place in the overall team standings. Arizona went on to successfully defend its relay title, winning the race in a pool record.

The first individual race, the 500 yard freestyle, went to Columbia University's Christina Teuscher. The first woman in Ivy League history to win an NCAA title, Teuscher also posted the second fastest time ever (4:35.45), missing Janet Evans' meet record by just over a second. Fellow US Olympic gold medallist Trina Jackson of Arizona placed second with an impressive time of 4:38.57. Teuscher, a sophomore at Columbia, opted out of last year's NCAA Championships in order to take a break before her build-up to the Worlds. A top recruit in 1996, Teuscher decided to stay in New York and attend Columbia, where she swims in the mornings with head coach Diana Caskey. Afternoons find her training with John Collins at the Badger Swim Club.

After a "frustrating" Worlds, Teuscher felt this was a redeeming meet for her. "Finally, a swim I can be really proud of! It has been a couple of years since I swam this fast, and it has been very difficult to balance myself both mentally and physically, but I stuck to my plan and it worked." Attending an Ivy League school and training fulltime can be very draining, but Teuscher says it stops her from procrastinating because there is just no time to waste. "There is no doubt in my mind that I made the right decision to stay in New York. I am a homebody and very happy with my decision."

World Championship double silver medallist Martina Moravcova of Slovakia won her first of three events for SMU by winning the 200 IM in 1:57.37, well off her best of 1:55.81 from last year's competition. Seven of the top sixteen swimmers in this event were foreigners, including Australian Olympian Elli Overton of California Berkeley, who placed second.

In the 50 yard freestyle, Olympic gold medallist Catherine Fox of Stanford defended her title with a time of 22.21. Fox swam about 30 yards of the race underwater, clearly beating all her competitors off the start and turn. Stanford was on a roll in the relays, breaking its own record in the 400 medley relay (3:33.61) with a team composed of Fox, Norway's Elin Austevoll, Misty Hyman, and Trinidad's Siobhan Cropper. The team repeated its victory in NCAA record time (1:37.80) in the 200 medley relay.

Teuscher broke another pool record winning the 400 IM. Her time of 4:05.62 is the third fastest swim in the event behind Summer Saunders and the legendary Tracy Caulkins. Teuscher entered the event as a change of pace from her usual freestyle races, expecting it to be more relaxing and less stressful. However, after qualifying first in the heats, Teuscher admitted that even the most experienced swimmers can get a little nervous.

Stanford's Misty Hyman won her first of three events in the 100 fly. Although FINA recently limited the butterfly to 15 m underwater off the starts and turns, the NCAA has yet to make the change, allowing Hyman to take full advantage of her underwater "fishkick" to win in an NCAA record of 51.34.

Moravcova won the 200 freestyle, two seconds over her winning time of a year ago. Canadian Shannon Shakespeare tied for second with her Michigan teammate Talor Bendel. Disappointed after her 200 IM, Shakespeare stated, "I have been training more freestyle so I am happy with my free times." Like many international level swimmers at the meet, Shakespeare found it difficult to compete at such a high level so soon after the World Championships. "It is always a challenge to do two tapers, but my team was very supportive of me going to Worlds, and welcomed me right back into things when I got home from Perth."

The decision for Canadian swimmers to compete in the NCAA has always been controversial, but with the support of her family, Shakespeare has never doubted her decision. "The NCAA Championships is the fastest meet in the world," she explained. "There are many international swimmers here, and the level of competition is world class. I chose to swim in the NCAA because of its competitiveness. I was looking for something new, exciting and different, and Michigan provides me with both athletic and academic excellence. My coach (Jim Richardson) values his athletes as people first, and I really like that philosophy." Sporting "Go Blue" earrings, Shannon's mom Bonnie loves coming to the NCAA meets. "There is so much excitement and enthusiasm from the parents and the swimmers that you just don't see in Canada." Canadian Jessica Amey's mother Mary-Jane flew down from Calgary to watch her daughter swim for Stanford. "There is so much energy at this meet, and the team spirit is incredible," she said.

Georgia's Kristy Kowal became the second woman to break sixty seconds in the 100 yard breaststroke, breaking the NCAA record with a 59.05. Having come off a breakthrough performance at the recent World Championships, Kowal was extremely pleased with her races. "After Worlds I went through a down period, but I was able to remotivate myself for this meet and the conference championships where we defended our title." Kowal achieved instant notoriety after her win in the 100 breast at the Worlds, receiving up to 150 email messages a day!

Fox won her second title in the 100 back (52.71), just missing former Stanford swimmer and recent world champion Lea Loveless-Maurer's NCAA record. Canadian Marylyn Chiang of California Berkeley was third in this event.

Arizona continued its domination of the freestyle relays by winning the 4x200 relay. Trina Jackson's lead-off split of 1:45.84 would have placed her second in the individual event, just behind Moravcova. Nebraska placed second with a team of four foreigners, including Australian Olympian Anna Windsor.

After two days of swimming, Stanford led with 279 points, followed closely by Georgia (259) and Arizona (222). Georgia head coach Jack Bauerle has seen the league and his team through its many changes. In his 19th year of coaching at Georgia, his team's arrival at the top of the ranks "means everything" to him. He continued, "It has been a long haul and it is nice to finally have an opportunity. Five or six teams came into the meet with a chance to win. We don't have a lot of overly talented kids, but they do have a lot of grit and determination." Bauerle, like many coaches in the NCAA, centres his program around international swimming. With two women on the Worlds team, Bauerle said that the positives far outweigh the negatives of having the team split for part of the winter. "It takes a lot of planning, so that before a situation occurs it has already been walked through. International swimmers are always a positive for an NCAA program, and when the main focus is swimming fast, the two go hand in hand."

Trina Jackson joined the ranks of the distance elite, becoming only the third woman under 15:50 in the 1650 free, breaking the pool record with a time of 15:49.25. Arizona teammate Laurie Kline was second in 16:02.07.

Hyman won the 200 back (largely underwater), holding off Georgia freshman Keegan Walkley by 1/100 of a second. She went on to win her third individual title in the 200 fly, followed by Overton and Jackson, who swam a gutsy 200 fly less than an hour after her win in the 1650.

Moravcova won the 100 free and became the first woman since 1991 to successfully defend all three of her events from the previous championships. SMU teammate Rania Elwani of Egypt was second.

Kowal beat Austevoll in the 200 breast, breaking the NCAA meet record, but just missing the NCAA record set by South African Penny Heyns of Nebraska at the Big 12 conference meet in 1996. After her final race of the meet Kowal was "extremely pleased." But after 14 races packed into three days, she was nevertheless "exhausted."

Stanford had the team title sewn up before the final relay, while the race for second came down to the final event of the competition. Georgia failed to qualify for the final of the 400 freestyle relay, leaving the door open for Arizona to take over second place. Arizona rose to the occasion in one of the most aggressive races of the meet to win the race and conclude its sweep of the freestyle relays, a feat that hadn't been accomplished since 1982. Before the meet, Arizona head coach Frank Busch said, ÔIt is an honour for Arizona to be a part of the mix for this meet." His team certainly proved its worth. With only 10 swimmers out of a possible 18, Arizona finished only 44 points behind Stanford, who has won the meet 8 times under head coach Richard Quick.

The NCAA will change over to short course metres in the year 2000. This year's meet was the quickest yet, with most events producing the fastest top 16 qualifiers in history. With five NCAA records broken, we can bank on some world-record swims at this competition in the new millennium.