Alyson Schmidt and Kelsey Vehr Qualify for NCAA Meet
3/5/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
March 5, 2009
OXFORD, Ohio - For the first time in 15 years, two Miami University women's swimmers have qualified for the NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships. Senior Alyson Schmidt (Maineville) and sophomore Kelsey Vehr (Cincinnati) will be representing the RedHawks at the meet to be held March 19-21 at Texas A&M's Student Recreation Center Natatorium in College Station, Texas.
Schmidt has qualified in the 50-, 100- and 200-yard freestyle events and Vehr will participate in the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke events.
Schmidt has qualifying times of :22.57 in the 50 free (tied for 44th best, nationally), :48.98 in the 100 free (35th) and 1:49.05 (72nd) in the 200 free.
Vehr's time of 1:00.48 at last week's Mid-American Conference meet in the 100-yard breaststroke ranks in a tie for the nation's 19th-best time, while her clocking of 2:12.22 in the 200 breaststroke ranks 37th.
Coach Dave Jennings also had two NCAA qualifiers in 1994 when backstroker Camilla Johannson and butterflyer Shannon Kieley went to the national meet.
"I'm very excited to have swimmers at the NCAA meet this year," said Jennings. "One of the goals in our program is to advance swimmers to the national championships. Alyson Schmidt has just had a remarkable career here at Miami. She didn't even make our conference team her freshman year, but her hard work this summer really set her up to have a great senior year. Kelsey Vehr is a great, great kid and a great team player. She had an amazing breakthrough at the MAC championships this past weekend. Kelsey has a very bright future."
Other MAC swimmers to earn berths at the NCAA meet were Toledo's Kylie Gamelier, Ohio's Chelsey Bower and Eastern Michigan's Alissa Ricard.
Tickets for the event can be ordered by calling 888-992-4443 or by visiting www.aggieathletics.com.
--www.MURedHawks.com--
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