Tommie swimmers miss Thursday finals

No St. Thomas swimmer advanced to the finals Thursday in the NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships.

In the second day of the championships at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center, no swimmer made the 6 p.m. finals from the 10 a.m. preliminary races.

For the women, junior Becca Ney placed 27th in the 200 freestyle. She finished with a time of 1:53.71, one second slower than her conference time.

“The 200 is definitely one of the longer events and it’s tougher,” Ney said. “Since I only added a second I’m still happy about it. I gave it the best I could.”

As for the men, the 400-yard medley relay of juniors Peter Mullee, Grant Frost, sophomore Erik Huls and freshman Sam Rauchwarter finished 12th. The team came in with a time of 3:23.96, a time that was just fraction of a second slower than its conference time.

“It could have been better,” Mullee said. “Our conference time was faster. A couple guys were tired and that comes with swimming in the morning.”

Huls swam in the 100 butterfly and finished 15th. Rauchwarter also had a busy Thursday as he competed in the 200 freestyle and finished 12th.

Check out what the rest of the week will be like for the other Tommie men and women swimmers at the NCAA championships.

Shane Kitzman can be reached at smkitzman@stthomas.edu