Before this year, no U swimmer has scored a single point at the NCAA Championships since the 2000 season. Friday, senior Alison McInturff changed that fact as she rewrote history.
McInturff broke a Utah and Mountain West Conference record in the 200-yard freestyle when she swam a time of 1:46.56 in a 10th place finish in the event preliminaries. The finish also earned McInturff All-American accolades and she went on to finish 16th in the event finals with a time of 1:48.06.
“It was just a tremendous effort by Alison today,” head coach Mike Litzinger said. “She surprised everybody with her time today, I think she even surprised herself. It was just a great swim for her.”
The only other member of the Ute squad at the championships was Amber Walter. The Ute senior, who was fresh of her second consecutive MWC Swimmer of the Year award, competed at nationals in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events.
Walter swam 22.75 and 50.19 in the 50 and 100 free to finish 26th and 43rd respectively. Neither time was good enough for a place in the event finals.
Now that the women’s portion of the NCAA Championships is complete, the U’s swimming and diving team officially came to a close over the weekend.
The Ute women finished regular season a perfect 10-0 and then took home a second-place finish in the MWC Championships. 12 Ute women walked away with all-conference honors including Adrienne Coburn, Rachael Curci, Jennifer Fredsall, Beth Gunderson, Marissa Martin, McInturff and Walter-who all walked away honorees in multiple events.
Diver Kelsey Patterson also finished the season with her second straight MWC Diver of the Year honor. Patterson was named to the all-conference team in the 1- and 3-meter dives as well as the platform dive event.
Six Ute men took home all-conference honors. Seamus Alger and Michel DeCarolis were honored in multiple events while Andrew Cole and Marco Ferraro also were honored.
Like Patterson, Andrew Jones took home all-conference honors in all three diving events, while Damien Brown was honored for his performance in the 1-meter diving event this season.