University of Minnesota Athletics
Spencer Advances to Saturday's Championship Final
3/17/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming & Diving
March 17, 2012
Minnesota junior Haley Spencer advanced to Saturday's 200-yard breaststroke Championship Final at the 2012 NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships in Auburn, Ala., after placing fifth in the preliminaries with a time of 2:08.75.
Spencer will defend her 2011 NCAA Championship title in the event, as she claimed first-place honors a year ago with a career-best time of 2:06.12. Should she win the title once again, she would become the first Gopher in program-history to win two NCAA titles in the same event and only the second to win two NCAA titles. Jillian Tyler won the crown in 3 meter diving in 2010 and in 1 meter diving in 2011.
Sophomore Tess Behrens advanced to the consolation final in the 200-yard backstroke after placing 14th in the preliminaries with a time of 1:54.36, while the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Jessica Plant, Tori Simenec, Erin Caflisch and Behrens will also compete in the consolation final after placing 10th in the prelims with a time of 3:15.86.
In platform diving, sophomore Maggie Keefer will make an appearance in the B Final after posting a score of 252.90, which was good for 15th place.
Senior Ashley Steenvoorden, freshman Kiera Janzen and junior Loren Brandon will swim in the 1,650-yard freestyle beginning at 4:30 p.m., while additional finals for the final day of competition at the NCAA Championships are set to get underway at 7:00 p.m. CT.
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Players Mentioned
