Women's Swimming and Diving In First at SMU Classic

The University of Louisville women's swimming and diving team had two NCAA A cuts, nine NCAA B-cuts, set five Meet Records and are ranked first with 184 points in the six team field after the first day of the SMU Classic Friday night in Dallas. In all, the Cards touched first in seven of nine events to take the early lead.

UofL is first followed by Missouri (151), UCLA (145), FSU (136), SMU (124) and TCU (97) after the first day. The SMU Classic has a unique format featuring six teams bringing eight swimmers and a diver who are allowed two entries per event. This year, the field includes SMU, Louisville, Missouri, TCU, UCLA and Florida State, representing the AAC, ACC, SEC, Big 12 and Pac-12.

In the opening race, the Cardinal 400-medley relay team went 3:32.36, for an NCAA's automatic qualifying standard time and assuring the Cardinals of a relay slot at the NCAA Championships, the Cards are the first team this season to hit an automatic relay qualifying bid. Alina Kendzior led off with a 53.71 on backstroke (ranking 4th in the nation currently), All-American Andrea Cottrell posted a 59.09 on breaststroke and Worrell split 50.87 on the fly leg and then Andrea Kneppers anchored in 48.69.

In the 400-IM freshman Rachael Bradford-Feldman posted a 4:09.45 to edge Florida State freshman Megan Brown's 4;09.82 for the win. UofL's Marah Pugh went 4:19.03 in the B-final.

In the 200-free, freshman Mallory Comerford won with a time of 1:45.10, almost two seconds ahead of the field and her time would have scored at last year's NCAA Championship. Abigail Houck won the B-final in 1:47.84. Both had NCAA B-cuts.

Kelsi Worrell won the 50-free with a meet record time of 22.20 and Andrea Kneppers was second in the B-final with a 22:98. Both were NCAA B-cut times.

Diver Andrea Acquista was second in the 1-meter diving with a score of 273.25.

Kelsi Worrell won her signature event with a time of 51.51 which is an NCAA A-cut. Mallory Comerford won the B-final with a time of 53.83.

In the 100-back, Alina Kendzior was fourth, hitting the wall in 54.09 and Abigail Houck was third in the B-final, going 56.47.

Andrea Cottrell won the 100-breaststroke as the only swimmer under a minute with a time of 59.58, setting a meet record and the first woman under a minute in meet history. Freshman Rachael Bradford-Feldman was third in the B-final in 1:02.79.

Louisville set another meet record with a win in the final event of the evening, touching first in the 800 free relay in 7:10.4 , posted by the team of Andrea Kneppers (1:46.12), Mallory Comerford (1:46.64), Abbie Houck (1:48.25) and Mara Pugh (1:49.39) .

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

Andrea Acquista

Mallory Comerford

Andrea Cottrell

Abigail Houck

Alina Kendzior

Andrea Kneppers

Marah Pugh

Kelsi Worrell

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