AUSTIN, Texas – Erin Falconer opened up Auburn's appearance at the 2019 NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championship by swimming the third-fastest 200 free time of her career to lead off the 800 free relay on Wednesday evening in Austin. Falconer, Bailey Nero, Sonnele Oeztuerk and Jessica Merrit combined to finish 15th in the only event contested on Wednesday night at the Jamial Texas Swimming Center at the University of Texas.
"I'm excited about getting off to a solid start," Auburn head coach Gary Taylor said. "It's not quite where we wanted to be however the women competed hard. At the end of the night we got points on the board and that's how you want to set up the meet."
Falconer lead off in 1:43.42 to put Auburn in second place in the heat at the first exchange. Nero then split a 1:45.70, Oeztuerk a 1:45.42 and Merritt a 1:45.87 as the squad dropped back to sixth in the heat and 15th out of 20 teams overall with an overall time of 6:59.67.
"Erin has been a steady performer for us all year and tonight was no different," Taylor said. "She swam a really smart race tonight and finished really well on the back end. In the middle of the race she was in the middle of the pack and then she did what she does, she finished really well, got us out towards the front and she's got her final NCAA Championships off to a great start."
Falconer's 200 free time, which was the same as her 800 free leadoff split from the SEC Championships, gives the senior four of the nine fastest 200 free performances in school history, including three of the top five.
Auburn's 15th-place finish marked the second straight season the team finished 15th in the opening event, going 7:01.95 last year.
The championships will have a full day of events on Thursday with prelims and finals of the 200 free relay, 500 free, 200 IM, 50 free, 1-meter diving and 400 medley relay. Prelims begin at 9 a.m. CT and finals at 5 p.m.
The Championships are available to watch on ESPN3 and live stats and scoring will be available through texassports.com and divemeets.com and the Meet Mobile app.
-- War Eagle –