Miami University
Miami Invitational
Miami Women Qualify 41 Swims For Saturday Night Finals
12/5/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
Dec. 5, 2009
OXFORD, Ohio - Saturday morning at the 16th Annual Miami Invitational, the Miami women's swimming and diving team picked up right where it left off the day before, qualifying 41 swims for the evening's finals.
The RedHawks, who moved into first place Friday night and will have 18 swimmers in championship heats Saturday night, were led by Kelsey Vehr, who set a meet-record in the 200-yard breaststroke and qualified seventh in the 200-yard IM, and Katie Arlinghaus, who qualified first in the 200 IM, and fourth in both the 100-yard freestyle and 200 breaststroke.
Vehr's 200 breaststroke time of 2:15.48 broke teammate Megan Brunn's meet record from last year by five one-hundredths of a second. She also broke her own record twice on Friday in the 100-yard breaststroke. The time in the 200 breaststroke also gave Vehr her second NCAA "B" cut of the weekend. Brunn qualified third (2:19.17) followed by Arlinghaus (2:21.18), who dropped over four seconds from her previous best time, in fourth.
The trio will also compete in the championship heat of the 200 IM. Arlinghaus dropped over 6.5 seconds to touch the wall in first at 2:05.97. Brunn qualified third (2:06.06) with her fastest time of the year, and Vehr was seventh (2:08.42).
Arlinghaus's was also Miami's top qualifier in fourth-place in the 100-yard freestyle (51.48) after a two second drop from her previous best. Allison Way will be join her in the championship heat after turning in a season-best 51.55, good for sixth place. Way also swam the fastest 100-yard butterfly of the meet with a 55.18.
The finals of the 100 butterfly will be filled with RedHawks as the Red and White swam six of the seven fastest times in the event. Nicole Roddenbery qualified second (55.83) behind Way and the quartet of freshmen Leah Thornton, Bekka Westrick, Maegan O'Connor and Brittney Rohr qualified fourth through seventh.
Thornton, also qualified second in the 200-yard backstroke (2:01.86), just a tenth of a second behind the top qualifier. Her time is the best by a RedHawk this season. Kasey Carpenter qualified third in the 200 back (2:02.84) with her fastest time of the season.
Claire Dickmann continued her success in the distance events, qualifying fourth and setting a Miami season-best in the 500-yard freestyle (5:01.84).
The other RedHawk to qualify in a championship heat was Claire Fogarty, who was eighth in the 200-yard breaststroke.
The meet wraps up with finals for the day's events beginning Saturday at 6 p.m. There will be a diving exhibition at 5:45 showcasing a touring group of Chinese Olympic hopefuls, several U.S. elite youth, eight-time MAC champion and 2009 Miami graduate Chris Heaton, and members of Miami's varsity men's and women's diving teams.
Fans who paid admission for the morning session will not be charged for finals, however heat sheets are not included and will be available for $2.00. Admission is $5.00 for those who did not attend the morning session. Live results are available here and live streaming video is available through Miami All Access for a nominal subscription fee.
