AUBURN, Ala. – The NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships are set to begin Wednesday night in Greensboro, North Carolina, with the 800 freestyle relay.
For the Auburn swimmers who qualified, they won't get started until Thursday with prelims in the morning followed by finals in the evening. The group of eight Tigers at the meet will swim various events Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
It's a group that includes some experience as seniors Carly Cummings and Jewels Harris and junior Emily Hetzer all swam at the 2019 NCAA Championships, but there will also be five newcomers to the meet, including three true freshmen.
"The group that's going is pretty young," Auburn head coach Gary Taylor said. "You've got Carly Cummings, Jewels Harris, Emily Hetzer who have experience at the meet, who have performed in relays and even individually and scored points. I will really look to them to be the leaders for the rest of this group.
"The other five are first-timers, so they have not been through that. We have scoring opportunities individually. They're going to have to come in and maybe be a little bit better than they were at the conference level, but I have a lot of confidence that we show that potential and ability to do so. That's going to be the challenge."
Cummings, Hetzer and sophomore Averee Preble all qualified for last year's NCAA Championships, but the meet was canceled due to COVID-19.
The other seven Tigers who made NCAAs a year ago have all moved on. That includes seniors Robyn Clevenger, Claire Fisch and Julie Meynen who were a part of the 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams that placed first at the SEC Championships, setting school records in both events.
"We lost some pretty heavy hitters over the previous two years," Taylor said. "So it's going to be a little bit different. You don't have those people to lean on that have been through it. At the same time, I think it will be very advantageous not only this year but, in the future, getting people with experience who have been there for that first time."
On Thursday, Cummings and freshman Hannah Ownbey will swim the 200 IM while Hetzer and Preble will compete in the 500 freestyle. Ownbey and Cummings both moved into Auburn's all-time top 10 in the 200 IM with lifetime bests at the SEC Championships.
Prelims and finals from each day will be streamed live on ESPN3.
Thursday, March 18
200 IM: Carly Cummings, Hannah Ownbey
500 Free: Emily Hetzer, Averee Preble
Friday, March 19
400 IM: Colby Hurt, Hannah Ownbey, Devan Sweeney
100 Fly: Jewels Harris
100 Breast: Carly Cummings, Brynn Curtis
Saturday, March 20
1650 Free: Emily Hetzer, Averee Preble
200 Breast: Carly Cummings, Brynn Curtis, Hannah Ownbey