Kansas Swimmers in Good Position Following Day #4 Prelims

Fifteen swimmers qualify for night swims including six in the 200 fly

Senior Stephanie Payne qualified for the 'A' final in the 200 yard butterfly Saturday at the Big 12 Championships in Columbia, Mo.

Feb. 25, 2012

200 back Prelims / 100 Free Prelims / 200 Breast Prelims / 200 Fly Prelims / Platform Prelims

COLUMBIA, Mo. – The final day of preliminaries in the 2012 Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships is almost complete and already a total of 15 Jayhawks had solid swims that propelled them to swims during the finals session.

The morning started off with the 200 back, where Brooke Brull and Alyssa Rudman earned spots in tonight’s ‘B’ final. Brull finished in ninth place with a time of 2:01.11, while Rudman placed 14^th with her 2:04.94 time.

Next up for the ‘Hawks was the 100 free, an event that saw four KU swimmers qualify for night session. That group included Svetlana Golovchun (11^th/50.91), Kara Stranski (19^th/52.10), Kaja Kolsek with a lifetime best 52.32 time and 20^th place finish, as well as Madison Wagner who placed 22^nd, with her 52.47 time.

Kansas would then see trio of swimmers have solid swims in the 200 breast stroke, with all three winding up in finals heats later this evening. Those swims were from sophomore Alison Lusk, who finished ninth with a time of 2:16.39, junior Brittany Rospierski who had a lifetime best time of 2:16.59 and placed 10^th behind her teammate. Sophomore Cora Powers was not too far off the pace, finishing 18^th,with a career best time of 2.22.57.

The second to last preliminary event (200 fly) is where KU would make their mark on the session, by placing six swimmers in finals swims later this evening. Ahead of the Crimson & Blue pack was senior captain Stephanie Payne, who placed seventh, with her time of 2:00.65. Following Payne in the ‘A’ final was freshman Deanna Marks who finished eighth, with her KU career best time of 2:01.67. In the ‘B’ final will be sophomores Sophiia Filatova (11^th/2:03.20) and Malia Johnson (14^th/2:04.80). Also in the ‘B’ is freshman Rachel Snyder (16^th/2:06.87), while senior Kath Liggett will be competing in the event’s ‘C’ final, with her 2:07.62 time and 17^th place finish.

The preliminaries for the platform dive will take place during the lunch hour and the ‘C’ and ‘B’ heats of the 1650 freestyle final gets underway at 4 p.m. inside the Mizzou Aquatic Center. Log onto kuathletics.com for complete results, recaps and interviews, following tonight’s session.

Live Results: http://www.mutigers.com/livestats/c-swim/big12/?DB_OEM_ID=10410