Huskies Place 12th at NCAA Championships
March 22, 2008
COLUBMUS, Ohio - Behind the effort of freshman Ariana Kukors,, the Washington women's swimming team placed 12th on Saturday at the NCAA Championships, their highest finish in school history.
Kukors, who trains locally with the King Aquatic Club, took fourth place in the 200 breaststroke on Saturday in a school-record time of 2:09.78. She finished the meet with three top four finishes and scored 48 of the Huskies 112 team points. On Thursday she swam to a second-place finish in the 200 IM and then on Friday took third in the 400 IM. She becomes the first Husky to earn three individual All-America honors since Kim Harada in 2003 (Individual awards do not include awards won as part of a relay team).
"Ari had probably the greatest meet in Husky history," said second-year head coach Whitney Hite.
"Sean (Hutchison) did a great job of training her and she was simply outstanding," said Hite in reference to Kukors club coach.
The 400 medley relay team of Kukors, Kim Jasmer, Lindsey Sharp and Erin Campbell finished ninth and set a school record with a time of 3:16.51.
"A historic finish," said Hite. "I couldn't be more proud of the girls. It was a really, really great meet for us."
The Huskies previous team-high was a 16th-place finish in 1976, which was their first year of swimming. Campbell also earned All-America recognition after her eighth-place finish in the 100 butterfly on Friday. The four individual All-America awards between Kukors and Campbell is the most for the UW since Jana Ellis earned four in 1985.
