PREYSS NAMED UAA WOMEN'S SWIMMER OF THE YEAR...
CLEVELAND, OH (February 10, 2007) - Case Western Reserve University junior Lauren Preyss (Chagrin Falls, OH) stole the show at the 2007 University Athletic Association Swimming and Diving Championships hosted by Case (Feb. 8-10) at the Veale Natatorium. Preyss was named the UAA Women’s Swimmer of the Year as she broke multiple records and claimed two UAA Championships.
Preyss won a UAA Championship in both the 200- and 100-yard freestyle. In the morning preliminaries on Friday in the 200 freestyle, she broke a UAA, school and pool record with a time of 1:50.89 (NCAA Division III automatic qualifying time). Preyss then won the UAA title in the evening finals with a time of 1:51.47. On Saturday, she once again broke records in the morning preliminaries swimming the 100 freestyle in a time of 51.76 (NCAA Division III provisional qualifying time). Preyss then claimed the title in that event in the evening finals with a time of 51.43 (NCAA Division III automatic qualifying mark), breaking the UAA, school and pool record she had set earlier. She also recorded an NCAA Division III provisional qualifying mark in the 500-yard freestyle (5:03.23, 3rd place) on Thursday.
“Lauren has done a great job of preparing all year and is ready to race with the best in the nation,” said Head Coach Chris Conlon. “She has been doing a great job and will have a lot of confidence going into the NCAAs.”
On the men’s side, senior John Erickson (Massillon, OH) and graduate student Pat Rodjom (Pittsburgh, PA) had a nice championship. Erickson recorded an NCAA Division III provisional qualifying mark in the 50-yard freestyle (20.96, 3rd place) on Thursday and broke a UAA and school record with his 20.81 split in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:25.61, 4th place). On Saturday morning, Erickson finished second in the 100-yard freestyle (46.73) in the preliminaries and then fifth (46.91) during the finals in the evening.
“John surpassed our expectations in the 100 free and I was real pleased with his finish in the 50 free,” continued Conlon. “I am really proud that he has a conference record to show for his hard work.”
Rodjom won a UAA title in the 100-yard breaststroke Friday night with an NCAA Division III provisional qualifying time of 57.70. Saturday night, he finished second in the 200-yard breastroke with a NCAA Division III provisional qualifying time of 2:06.76. Rodjom also teamed-up with Erickson and two other Spartans (Drew Swartz and John Somerville) to take second place in the 200-yard medley relay on Friday with a time of 1:34.58 (NCAA Division III provisional qualifying time).
“Pat makes my job easy,” said Conlon. “He is easy to work with and he knows what he needs to do to go fast. I know he is going to have a great meet at the NCAAs.”
The Spartan men finished in sixth place (out of eight) at the Championships with a score of 795 and the Case women placed seventh with 644 points. Emory University claimed both team titles (1,724 for the men, 1,887 for the women).
“There were five individual conference records broken at this year’s championships and we set three of them,” said Conlon. “The kids are swimming fantastic and everyone is getting better. We just don’t have the same depth as some of the other teams.”
Team Scores --- Individual Results
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