MVC Championships: Day Two Prelims

02/18/2016 | 12:00:00 | Swimming & Diving

Feb. 18, 2016

By Elizabeth Robinson
SIUSalukis.com

CARBONDALE, Ill. – At the conclusion of the preliminary events on day two of the MVC Swimming and Diving Championships, 10 Saluki swimmers qualified for A Finals in Thursday night's finals. SIU diver Kaixuan 'Sherry' Zhang and Rachel Williams also qualified for the 1-meter diving A Final also held Thursday night. In total, 18 Salukis will compete in tonight's finals.

"We didn't really have lows today. It was a pretty good morning," head coach Rick Walker said.

The morning began with an impressive 500-yard freestyle prelim where five of the eight A Final swimmers will be Salukis. Sophomore Bryn Handley came away with the top time, finishing in 4:53.52 followed just barely by Kelsie Walker in second at 4:53.55. Junior Lauren Stockton came in third at 4:55.18, beating her previous season-best time by five seconds.

Sophomore Nicole Fuller finished the 500 freestyle with her most impressive time of the season, dropping to 4:55.48 with a season-best finish for fifth place in the prelim round. Fuller dropped her time by nearly 15 seconds, with her previous season best coming in at 5:09.62. This is the first time Fuller has qualified for an A Final. Last year, she swam in the 1650-yard freestyle, where preliminary qualification does not apply.

Senior Helena Amorim rounds out the Salukis represented in the 500 freestyle, coming in sixth in the prelim race at 4:55.89. Jordan Ries will swim in the B Final, coming in just short of the A Final in 10th place overall at 5:03.63, while Katy Ovington will swim in the C Final.

"To have five in the 500 freestyle, holy cow," Walker said. "And we were close to having a sixth. That was an excellent race."

The 200-yard IM followed, with three Salukis qualifying for the A Final, two in the B Final and one in the C Final. Chandler Ott will once again compete in the A Final after finishing sixth in the 200 IM in last year's MVC Championships. Ott had SIU's fastest time, finishing fifth overall at 2:05.87. Freshmen Oliwia Okaj and Emma Brazeau will also compete in the A Final as the No. 7 and No. 8 seeded swimmers.

Abby Kresal and Sarah James will swim in the 200 IM B Final, and Jess Peck will swim in the C Final.

"Typically the 200 IM has not always been one of our strongest events, but we put three up and then another two down in the consoles. That's five scoring, and I think we scored two last year, so that's a huge change for us," Walker said.

The final swimming prelim of the day was the 50-yard freestyle where three Salukis qualified for Thursday night's finals, two in the A Final and one in the B Final. McKenna Avery finished in 23.44 for second place in the prelims, while Riley Schroedter came in at 23.79 for seventh place. Schroedter's time is a season best, beating her previous time by nearly half a second. Junior Kristina Ksarjian finished 13th overall at 24.26 to qualify for the B Final.

Thursday's prelims concluded with 1-meter diving prelims, where Kaixuan 'Sherry' Zhang and Rachel Williams competed for the Salukis. Zhang, the reigning MVC Champion, is undefeated in 1-meter dives coming into the MVC Championships. She will compete in tonight's A Final after scoring 348.30 in prelims for first place. Rachel Williams also qualified for the A Final, coming in fourth overall at 250.75 for a season-best score.

"We want to be racers. We want to get in there and race because that's what we love to do," Walker said. "Tonight's about scoring points and just relishing in the atmosphere. Up to this point we've done a very good job of creating our own atmosphere and I think it does us very well."

Finals from each of today's prelim races will begin at 6 p.m. on Thursday night in Shea Natatorium, along with the 200-yard freestyle relay final. Event results will be posted on SIU's Championship Central page in real-time, along with photo galleries and complete results at the conclusion of the day. Follow along with @SIU_SwimDive on Twitter for updates throughout the weekend.