March 15, 2017
Auburn had three swimmers split a 1:45 as it finished 17th in the 800 freestyle relay on the first night of action at the 2017 NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships in Indianapolis on Wednesday night.
Erin Falconer (1:45.74), Aly Tetzloff (1:45.54), Zoe Thatcher (1:45.64) and Jessica Merritt (1:47.37) missed out on a top-16 finish by 1.19 seconds as it combined to go 7:04.29, equaling the team's best time of the year, set at the SEC Championships a month ago.
"The splits tonight indicate how consistently they've trained and raced all year," Auburn associate head coach Lauren Hancock said. "For them all to be in the same range, knowing what they've done in practice since August, is not at all surprising but it is absolutely exciting as we head into the rest of this meet and next year."
Stanford won the event in a NCAA, American and US Open record 6:54.91, shattering the previous record of 6:49.42 set last month.
Thursday's morning prelims session will being at 9 a.m. CT and will include the 200 freestyle relay, 500 free, 200 IM, 50 free, 400 medley relay and 1-meter diving. The finals session, which will include a championship and consolation heat, will begin at 5 p.m.
ESPN3.com will stream the championships finals sessions live on Friday and Saturday. Wednesday's evening session, Thursday's sessions along with the morning sessions on Friday and Saturday will be streamed live on NCAA.com and indianasportscorp.org/ncaasd. Additionally, ESPNU will air a two-hour broadcast via tape delay at 7 p.m. Eastern time, Tuesday, March 28. Live results for the championships will be available on NCAA.com
Wednesday NCAA Champion & Auburn Finish
800 Freestyle Relay
1. Stanford 6:54.91
17. Auburn 7:04.29