Zelnick Breaks Another School Record on Day 2 of AAC Championship

Thursday, February 15

Dallas, Texas

ALL DAY

Tulane University

Day 2

Photo by: Parker Waters

Zelnick Breaks Another School Record on Day 2 of AAC Championship

Feb 15, 2018 | Women's Swimming and Diving

Day 2 Results | Live Video Streaming | Live Results

DALLAS – Shelly Zelnick set a school record for the second consecutive day and posted a new No. 5 time in school history, and the Green Wave swimming and diving team had three finishes in the top eight on the second day of the American Athletic Conference Championship at SMU on Thursday.

As a team, Tulane sits in sixth place with 145 points with two days of action still remaining in the pool. The Green Wave also posted three NCAA B standard times on Thursday.

FINALS
Shelly Zelnick had the top individual finish for Tulane on the night, taking fourth place in the 200 IM finals with a time of 2:00.50. Kate McDonald was right behind her in 2:00.56 for fifth, the new second-best time in school history and a time that would have been a school record before Zelnick's swim of 2:00.03 in the morning prelims. Zelnick and McDonald both reached the NCAA B standard with those marks.

Swimming in the B final, Olivia Johnson placed second in that heat and 10th overall with a time of 2:01.71. Combined, the trio of 200 IM swimmers scored 15, 14 and 7 points for the Green Wave.

In the 200 free relay to close the night, the team of Zelnick, Kaitlin Simpson, Courtney Barker and Paris Zhang came in fifth place with a time of 1:32.32 to score 28 points for the Green Wave. Zelnick went 23.26 in her opening 50-meter time, setting the new fifth-fastest 50 free time in team history.

Morgan Tacik, who qualified for the consolation finals in the 500 free earlier in the morning, took third that consolation final and thus earned place 11th overall in the event. Her B final time of 4:55.05 was .41 seconds faster than she swam the prelims on Thursday morning and the new 12th-fastest overall time in team history, scoring 6 points for the Green Wave in the meet.

Kaitlin Simpson took 16th place in the 50 free, placing eighth in the consolation final with a time of 23.67 seconds.

PRELIMS
Tulane's new school record Thursday came in the team's second race of the day. Shelly Zelnick – who set a Tulane record in the 200 free Wednesday – was at it again Thursday when she set a new program best in the 200 IM. Zelnick won the qualifiers with her school-record time of 2:00.03, beating out the second-place finisher by 0.10 seconds. Her time, an NCAA B-standard, broke her own Tulane record by 0.81 seconds and earned her a spot in the event finals in the event.

Kate McDonald also had an impressive time in the prelims, finishing in 2:01.88 to set the new third-best time in team history. She finished seventh overall and also earned a spot in the event finals. Olivia Johnson got herself a spot in the consolation finals with a ninth-place time of 2:02.15.

Also swimming in the 200 IM prelims were Lena Hayakawa and Alex Lakota who took 23rd and 27th place with times of 2:06.27 and 2:07.43, respectively.

Tacik started the morning in the 500 free relay by qualifying for the consolation finals with a time of 4:55.46, then the new 12th-best overall time in program history but now 13th overall in team history following her evening performance. Tacik's prelim time earned her 12th place in the field.

Freshman Ellie Vincent also swam in her first AAC Championship event in the 500 free, taking 22nd place with a time of 5:11.81.

Also Thursday morning, the 50 free prelims took place with Kaitlin Simpson earning a spot in the consolation finals with a time of 23.56 seconds. Simpson finished 16th in the prelims to nab the final spot in the consolation finals.

Competing in 50 free prelims as well was Courtney Barker in 17th with a time of 23.64, Paris Zhang in 20th in a time of 23.67, Lilly Morgan was 21st in 23.74, Jeni Griffin was 26th in 24.04 and Alex Brindisi was 29th in 24.23.

In the 1-meter springboard, Anise Muir and Katie Nicol both qualified for the consolation finals with finishes of ninth and 16th, respectively in the preliminaries. Muir's prelim score was 208.85 while Nicol scored a 177.65.

In those consolation finals, Muir would score an improved 210.65 – the 15th-best score in school history – but that placed her 13th in the field and scored 4 points. Nicol's total also improved to 188.60, but she remained in 16th place for 1 point.

Action in Dallas will continue on Friday with the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back and 400 medley relay. Swimming prelims begin at 10 a.m. with finals scheduled for 6 p.m.