March 13, 2009

Houston, Tex. - The Grand Valley State women's swimming and diving team is 10th with 78 points after two days of competition at the 2009 NCAA DII Women's Swimming & Diving Championships in Houston, Texas. Drury leads the way with 285.5 points. Day three will begin with Friday morning prelims.

Freshman diver Karen Verbrugge (Ada, Mich./Forest Hills Central) tallied the first All-America honor of her career with a fourth-place finish on the 1-meter board. Verbrugge notched an 11-dive score of 428.50. Alison Sante (Bloomfield, Mich./Marian) also earned All-America honors on the 1-meter board with her 13th-place finish (326.05). GVSU's 200 free relay team of Allison Scholz, Jenna Thayer, Katelyn Childers and Kim Baughman placed sixth with a time of 1:34.37, while the 400 medley relay team of Baughman, Toni Musto, Carly Bush and Childers finished 13th (3:52.06). Both relays earned All-America honors.

GVSU had several swimmers turn in solid swims in the prelims, but did not advance to the championship even session. Erin Lynch finished 30th in the 400 individual medley (4:39.34). Jenna Thayer finished 17th in the 100 butterfly (56.77), followed by Carly Bush in 24th (57.33), Lauren Dorsey in 37th (58.29) and Allison Scholz in 40th (58.37). Erin Kinney finished 26th in the 200 free (1:53.75), Melissa Faletti was 29th (1:54.27), Alison VanKampen was 52nd (1:57.38) and Erin Lynch 53rd (1:57.48).