March 13, 2018
The 2018 Women's NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships begin Wednesday at 6 p.m. CT with the 800 freestyle relay from Ohio State's McCorkle Aquatic Center.
Auburn's invited roster includes nine swimmer and two divers, which makes it one of 15 teams to have at least nine swimmers at the championships. The team has also qualified all five relays.
"We feel really good about the girls at the top of our program that can go in there and compete," Auburn head coach Brett Hawke said. "Our relays are very strong. We feel good about the nine girls that are going. They are really strong athletes, really strong minded and physically some of the best athletes we have on our team."
Auburn has five seven individual swims ranked inside the top 16 (scoring position) headed into the championship.
Junior Aly Tetzloff owns three of them, rankings seventh in the 100 free (47.39), ninth in the 50 free (21.83) and 11th in the 100 fly (51.32).
Senior Haley Black has the highest ranked individual swim, checking in at fourth in the 100 fly (50.68).
The remaining top 16 slot belong to Ashton Ellzey (50 free ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" 14th ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" 22.02), Erin Falconer (200 back ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" 16th ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" 1:52.07) and Julie Meynen (100 free ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" 11th ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" 47.61).
Of the five relays, Auburn is ranked in the top 11 in four of them. The 400 free relay is seventh (3:12.64), the 200 free relay is eighth (1:28.10), the 200 medley relay is 10th (1:36.33) and the 400 medley relay is 11th (3:30.12).
"We feel really good. We got on the podium a lot at SECs and I think that counts towards the prediction of possible finalists at the NCAA Championships," Hawke said.
Auburn had eight podium finishes at the SEC Championships, highlighted by the winning 400 free relay.
Auburn is in search of its first top-10 finish since the 2012 championships and its 22nd overall.
Live results for all sessions are available at www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com.