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Auburn Women Finish In Fourth Place At NCAA Championships

Mar 18, 2001

Marsh Named Coach Of The Meet

LONG ISLAND, N.Y. - The Auburn University women's swim team ended its season Saturday night in fourth place with its best finish in school history with a score of 324 behind No. 1 Georgia (389), No. 2 Stanford (387.5) and No. 3 Texas (350.5).

Auburn led the pack until halfway through the final day of competition. The team competition was the closest in team history with Georgia winning by just a point and a half pulling ahead of Stanford in the last lap of the 400 free relay to take the title for the third consecutive year.

Auburn head coach David Marsh was named the 2001 NCAA Championships Coach of the Year for the team's performance throughout the meet.

Leading off the day for the Tigers was freshman Magda Dyszkiewicz in the 1650-yard freestyle in which she placed fifth with a school record time of 16:13.71.

Up next for Auburn in the final day of competition was freshman Taylor Spivey, who entered the finals with a No. 8 seed and finished the night in the same spot with a time of 1:58.71. In the preliminary swim during the morning session, Spivey broke her own school record with a time of 1:57.20.

In the 100 free, Auburn placed one consolation finalist and one championship finalist with sophomore Cortnee Adams placing 16th overall (50.85) and freshman Eileen Coparropa taking fifth with a time of 49.18.

Sophomore Maggie Bowen led the way for Auburn in the 200 breast with a ninth place finish and a personal-best time of 2:12.49 while freshman Laura Swander finished 12th in the event with a time of 2:14.48.

Auburn's only competitor in the 200 fly, freshman Demerae Christianson, placed 12th for the Tigers with a time of 2:00.25.

The Auburn 400 free relay team, seeded No. 2 heading into the preliminary events on Saturday, was disqualified for a false start in the morning swim, which kept the team out of the finals in the evening.

Auburn accomplished an astounding amount of landmarks and milestones during the 2001 championships with all 12 AU participants capturing at least one All-America honor, Bowen earning an American Record and two NCAA individual championships, the team earned their highest finish in school history with a fourth place finish and seven new school records.

Included in the seven records that were broken in the 2001 NCAA Championships were Dyszkiewicz breaking her own 1650 free record with a time of 16:13.71; Swander breaking teammate Brook Monroe's record in the 100 breast (1:00.20); Heather Kemp, Bowen, Cassidy Maxwell and Dyszkiewicz in the 800 free relay (7:09.66) and Dyszkiewicz breaking 2000 Olympian Rada Owen's record in the 500 free (4:41.93).

Bowen broke her own 200 (1:55.49) and 400 (4:07.26) IM records with her time in the 200 IM standing as a new American, NCAA and US Open Record. The Auburn 400 medley relay team of Spivey, Bowen, Christianson and Coparropa also broke their own school record with a time of 3:36.74.

"Tonight is a culmination of many things," Marsh said. "We have mixed emotions because this is the most successful Auburn women's team in history from placing top to bottom to the number of school records to Maggie's American Record. This program has elevated dramatically.

"Obviously we are disappointed in our finish, but we didn't have a good fifth session. This is a young team and they will learn from this and we will continue to contend. Our young swimmers were the key to this meet from Laura Swander, to Taylor Spivey, Eileen Coparropa and Magda Dyszkiewicz and our senior leadership from captain Robyn Williford really made a difference."

The NCAA Championships ends the collegiate season for Auburn, but most of the women's team will head to US Nationals in Austin, Texas, March 27 - April 2 for a chance to make the World Championship team, the World University Games team and the Goodwill Games team which will compete in China, Japan and Australia respectively.