SIOUX FALLS – University of Sioux Falls Swimming continues their postseason competition as they head to Greensboro, N.C. for the NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships on March 14-17. The Cougars send six athletes who will compete at the Greensboro Aquatic Center. Freshmen Giulia Marcon and Cassie Wright both qualified in individual events and will join Maike Doerr, Chantal Kasch, Ingelin Lima and Kyjana Webber as part of four qualifying relays.
 
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Never miss an update of USF Swimming and all USF's 17 athletic programs with the social media directory at usfcougars.com/socialmedia. Watch all eight sessions of the NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships online at ncaa.com/liveschedule. Live results and more information can be found at the Championship Central page.
 
Schedule of events
USF will compete all four days of the meet, swimming in a total 10 events. The NCAA Championship meet will consist of two sessions each day with trials/prelims contested in the morning at 10 a.m. (EDT) and the top 16 swimmers advancing to the championship session – the top eight times will swim in the A final and the next-fastest eight swim in the B final – in the evening sessions at 6 p.m. (EDT).
 
Below are the events in which USF will compete. There are not exact start times for each event as every session is a rolling schedule. A complete schedule can be found in the meet program. All events in which USF will compete are prelim-final races, meaning the prelims will be contested at 10 a.m. on the day they are listed and if USF's swimmer/swimmers advance to the finals, they will swim in the 6 p.m. session of the same day.
 
Wednesday, March 14
50 freestyle
200 medley relay
Thursday, March 15
200 freestyle relay
200 freestyle
400 medley relay
Friday, March 16
500 freestyle
100 backstroke
Saturday, March 17
100 freestyle
200 backstroke
400 freestyle relay
 
Championship history: Cougars return to national stage
Making history by qualifying five freshmen for the NCAA Championships last season, USF returns in their second year as a program with six qualifiers for the 2018 championships. Last year, the Cougars competed in six different events, including three relays, but they failed to advance a swimmer or relay to the finals and finished without recording a team point. In addition to returning to the NCAA Championships with another swimmer and additional qualifying relay, the Cougars bring back three swimmers with championship experience. Sophomores Maike Doerr, Ingelin Lima and Kyjana Webber all competed at the NCAA Championships as freshmen and they will join freshmen Chantal Kasch, Giulia Marcon and Cassie Wright on the 2018 national meet roster. Lima competed in two individual events as a freshmen, placing 32nd in the 50 free and 43rd in the 100 free. Webber swam legs on USF's 200 medley, 200 free and 400 free relays while Doerr swam on the 200 and 400 free relays. USF's 200 free relay team was just 0.10 second out of reaching the B final.
 
Cougars take third at NSIC Championships, crown first champions in program history
In just their second year as a program, USF vaulted past two programs and finished third at the NSIC Swimming & Diving Championships this past month. The Cougars scored a total of 581 points to place them behind champion Minnesota State and runner-up St. Cloud State. USF crowned three champions and recorded eighth All-NSIC finishes (Top three per individual event, top two per relay).
 
The Cougar foursome of Cassie Wright, Chantal Kasch, Maike Doerr and Ingelin Lima brought USF their first conference championship with a 0.03-second victory in the 200 medley relay. The following day, USF captured their second relay title in as many events as Lima, Wright, Giulia Marcon and Kyjana Webber won the 200 free relay.
 
Wright, who earned four All-NSIC honors as members of three top-two relays, gave the Cougars their first individual conference champion, winning the 100 backstroke title. Marcon came up just short of two conference titles, finishing second in both the 200 and 500 free races. She joins Lima as a three-time All-NSIC honoree after Lima swam legs on USF's two winning relays and their runner-up 400 medley relay. Nina Groene's second-place finish in the 1650 free and Webber's runner-up time in the 100 free round out USF's all-conference performers.
 
How they stack up: Wright leads individuals; 200 free relay seeks NCAA Championship redemption
Heading into the NCAA Championships, USF Swimming figures to score points at the national meet after getting shut out in their first trip to the meet last season. Based off current rankings, the Cougars would score in two events: Cassie Wright's 100 backstroke and USF's 200 free relay.
 
In just her second meet after joining the USF Swimming program at semester, Christchurch, New Zealand native Wright posted a 100 back time that ranks fourth heading into the NCAA Championships. With the top 16 individuals and relays scoring at the national meet, Wright should score for the Cougars while contending for a national title and All-American honors (top eight individual and relays per event). Wright's time of 54.39 seconds has her seeded fourth in the 38-swimmer field. Wright's 200 back seed time of 2:01.92 has her ranked 26th entering the meet. Fellow freshman Giulia Marcon joined at semester and made a big impact on the Cougars and she looks to score for USF as she qualified in four events. The Juiz de Fora, Brazil native has the best chance of earning a spot in the top 16 in the 200 freestyle, where she is seeded 19th at 1:50.28.
 
At last year's championships, USF's best chance to score was their 200 free relay, and they missed the finals by 0.10 seconds. This season, the Cougars enter as the No. 11 seed and look to redeem their narrow miss. USF's Ingelin Lima, Marcon, Wright, and Kyjana Webber combined to swim 1:33.64 for the NSIC title and punch their ticket to the NCAA Championships. USF has worked to do to qualify for the finals in their other three relays. They enter the 400 free relay seeded 22nd, the 200 medley relay at 26th and the 200 medley with 28th-fastest qualifying time.