UF S&D: Sims and Weyant Earn Top-Two Finishes to Conclude Day Three of NCAA Championships

Sims and Weyant Earn Top-Two Finishes to Conclude Day Three of NCAA Championships
Bella Sims tallied her second individual National Title after winning the 200 Free, while Emma Weyant swam a personal best in the 400 IM to claim second.

Friday Results<https://floridagators.com/documents/2024/3/22/Friday_Finals_Results.pdf>

Athens, Ga. – Day three of the 2024 Women’s NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships consisted of three Gators earning top-five finishes, while six totaled All-American Honors on Friday inside Gabrielson Natatorium.

After showing out in morning prelims, Emma Weyant went into the 400 IM Final as the top seed after she swam a personal best 4:00.98. The junior broke 4:00 to reset UF’s second-best time in program history after clocking a 3:59.00. She secured her best NCAA finish with second to claim her third All-American honor in the event.

After finishing 16th in her NCAA Championships debut last year, Zoe Dixon secured a spot in the 400 IM Final after recording a 4:06.03 in prelims. The sophomore came in seventh during Friday’s Finals after dropping two seconds from her morning time to go 4:04.93 for her second All-American honor in the event.

Bella Sims tallied her second National Title of the week after going head-to-head against Indiana’s junior Anna Peplowski in the 200 Freestyle. The 500 Free National Champ tied her season best of 1:40.90 for the program, SEC, and pool record. It marked Florida’s seventh National Title in the event and first since Caroline Burckle won in 2008.

Fellow Gator Isabel Ivey went 1:43.79 in the 200 Free to add 12 points to Florida’s overall score after finishing in seventh. The Gainesville native earned her second Individual All-American this week as well as her second 200 Free All-American Honor.

After being crowned the SEC 100 Fly Champion in February, Olivia Peoples swam a 50.93 in the Championship final to record her best NCAA finish, sixth place. It marks her second individual All-American Honor of the week and second overall in the event.

In the final event of the night, Florida’s 400 Medley Relay Team of Bella Sims, Molly Mayne, Olivia Peoples and Isabel Ivey recorded a 3:25.64 for fourth place in the nation. The Gators snagged 30 team points, while Sims’ lead off split of 50.02 broke her previous 100 Backstroke school record of 50.07 and tied the SEC record set Ryan White in 2020.

Diving
Carina Lumia and Camyla Monroy represented Florida in the 3-Meter. Monroy finished the last two rounds with 50+ scores during morning prelims to make a big jump in the rankings. The freshman barely missed the top-16 advancing spots, scoring 281.50 for 20th overall. The freshman will make her first NCAA Championship appearance on platform tomorrow.

In her last Championship event, Carina Lumia scored a 261.40 in her six dives to finish 33rd overall. She improved from her previous NCAA finish of 217.50 during her freshman year.

Hear From Winning Gator Bella Sims
On how she stays calm with the rest of the field inching up on her…
“I like to win, so I definitely try to push myself in the front half. Knowing that I’m ahead, gives me a lot of confidence to push myself even further. Like when people try to catch up to me, it’s just like, ‘Come on, Bella, you got it,’ so staying ahead in the beginning definitely gives me a lot more confidence in the beginning of the race.”

On what it’s like training at Florida and being pushed by her teammates…
“I’m so grateful for all of them. They pushed me so hard in practice and I don’t know where I would be without them.”

Up Next

The 2024 Women’s NCAA Championships concludes on Saturday, with mile heats beginning at 10 a.m. EST. Prelims then begin speed up, as the 100 Free, 200 Free, 200 Breast and 200 Fly wrap up the swimming portion of time trials. Diving will climb the tower for platform prelims starting at 12:15. The 400 Free Relay Team will also make an appearance during Finals to complete NCAA Championship action.

TOP 10 STANDINGS
1. Virginia, 360.5
2. Texas, 319
3. Florida, 267
4. Tennessee, 185
5. Stanford, 177
6. USC, 157
7. Indiana, 138
8. Louisville, 136
9. NC State, 114
10. California, 110

All-American Tracker

200 Medley Relay: Aris Runnels, Molly Mayne, Olivia Peoples, Micayla Cronk

800 Free Relay: Bella Sims, Isabel Ivey, Emma Weyant, Micayla Cronk

400 Medley Relay: Bella Sims, Molly Mayne, Olivia Peoples, Isabel Ivey

500 Free: Bella Sims and Emma Weyant

200 IM: Isabel Ivey and Zoe Dixon

1-Meter Diving: Camyla Monroy

400 IM: Emma Weyant and Zoe Dixon

100 Fly: Olivia Peoples

200 Free: Bella Sims and Isabel Ivey

Championship Coverage
Live NCAA Streaming<https://www.ncaa.com/liveschedule/2024/03/17> | @GatorsSwimDV<https://twitter.com/GatorsSwimDv> | LiveResults<https://swimmeetresults.tech/NCAA-Division-I-Women-2024/> | Florida Notes<https://floridagators.com/documents/2024/3/18/NCAA_Womens_Championships_Notes.pdf>

  *   The complete lists of all swimmers (athletes by institution, official psych sheet, relays and alternates) competing in the championships is available at usaswimming.org/ncaa.<https://www.usaswimming.org/times/otherorganizations/ncaa-division-i>
  *   A total of 322 participants (281 swimmers and 41 divers) will compete in the championships. Swimmers qualified for the championships by meeting the established minimum time for the events in which they entered.
  *   ESPN+ will provide live digital coverage for preliminary and finals sessions Wednesday through Saturday.
  *   Tape-delayed coverage of the women’s championships will be on ESPNU at 7 p.m. Eastern time, Wednesday, March 27.
Complete Results
Results from Friday’s Finals and Prelims as well as Saturday’s schedule can be found below.

Friday, March 22
Prelims Results – Top 16 advance to Finals

400 IM

1st – Emma Weyant – 4:00.98 (-0.22 Seed time)
8th – Zoe Dixon – 4:06.03 (+2.70 seed time)
31st – Anna Auld – 4:11.36 (+1.97 seed time)
37th – Julia Podkoscielny – 4:16.94 (+6.62 seed time)

100 Butterfly

5th – Olivia Peoples – 50.85 (+0.38 seed time)

200 Freestyle

2nd – Bella Sims – 1:41.87 (+0.97 seed time)
7th – Isabel Ivey – 1:42.95 (+1.10 seed time)
37th – Micayla Cronk – 1:45.84 (+2.01 seed time)
46th – Lainy Kruger – 1:46.95 (+2.60 seed time)

100 Breaststroke

31st – Molly Mayne – 59.86 (+1.18 seed time)

100 Backstroke

21st – Aris Runnels – 51.70 (-0.01 seed time)
35th – Catie Choate – 52.49 (+0.36 seed time)

3-Meter Diving

Camyla Monroy | 20th Place

  *   Round 1: 49.50 | 13th Place
  *   Round 2: 46.80/ 92.70 | 19th Place
  *   Round 3: 40.30 / 133.00 | 38th Place
  *   Round 4: 39.00 / 172.00 | 32nd Place
  *   Round 5: 55.50 / 227.50 | 25th Place
  *   Round 6: 54.00 / 281.50 | 20th Place
Carina Lumia | 33rd Place

  *   Round 1: 44.80 | 15th Place
  *   Round 2: 55.00 / 92.80 | 18th Place
  *   Round 3: 25.50 / 118.30 | 24th Place
  *   Round 4″ 55.00 / 157.90 | 44th Place
  *   Round 5: 52.50 / 210.40 | 35th Place
  *   Round 6: 51.00 / 261.40 | 33rd Place

Friday, March 22
Finals Results

400 IM

2nd – Emma Weyant – 3:59.00
7th – Zoe Dixon – 4:04.93

100 Butterfly

6th – Olivia Peoples – 50.93

200 Freestyle

1st Bella Sims – 1:40.90
7th Isabel Ivey – 1:43.79

400 Medley Relay

 4th – Bella Sims (50.02), Molly Mayne (58.75), Olivia Peoples (50.48), Isabel Ivey (46.39) – 3:25.64

2024 NCAA DI women’s swimming and diving championships schedule

Saturday, March 23

  *   Trials: 1,650-yard freestyle – All but heat of time finals, 10 a.m. ET
  *   Trials: 100-yard freestyle
  *   Trials: 200-yard backstroke
  *   Trials: 200-yard breaststroke
  *   Trials: 200-yard butterfly
  *   Trials: Platform diving
  *   Finals: 1,650-yard freestyle – Last heat of time finals, 6 p.m. ET
  *   Finals: 100-yard freestyle
  *   Finals: 200-yard backstroke
  *   Finals: 200-yard breaststroke
  *   Finals: 200-yard butterfly
  *   Final: Platform diving
  *   Finals: 400-yard freestyle relay

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