March 20, 2004
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Purdue's stay at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships came to an end Saturday afternoon as Tracy Duchac provided one of the few highlights, scoring a lifetime best in the prelims of the 100-meter freestyle.
Duchac recorded a time of 56.75, which, when converted to yards gave her a personal best of 50.84. Her previous best was a 51.23, which she posted at the Big Ten Championships. Swimming in lane one of the first heat, the Wisconsin Rapids native placed second, but finished 58th out of 88 competitors.
Duchac's converted time of 50.84 ranks as the eighth-best time in Purdue history, surpassing Diane Reberger, who clocked a 50.99 in 1990.
Off the platform diving board, Carrie McCambridge placed 18th and Amanda Miller took 21st. McCambridge fought back from last place to put herself into contention late in the competition, but a two-point penalty invoked by the judges on the last dive cost her a chance to score more points.
McCambridge was stuck in 23rd place through five rounds, but clawed her way back to 17th through eight rounds. On her final dive, an armstand forward somersault, McCambridge balked on the 10-meter platform and each judge was forced to remove two points from their scores.
Scores that should have read 7.0 or 7.5, came up as 5.0 and 5.5, and McCambridge settled for her 18th-place total of 352.70 points.
McCambridge's round-by-round scores were 43.30, 46.20, 38.85, 31.20, 45.00, 31.50, 41.00, 47.25 and 28.50. Her best dive came in the eighth round after she successfully completed a forward 1 1/2 somersault with a twist off the 10-meter board.
Miller finished with a score of 341.80, her second highest platform score of the season. Her round-by-round scores were 54.60, 35.00, 51.00, 26.10, 39.20, 28.00, 34.00, 36.10 and 37.80. Miller's top dive also was off the 10-meter, as she completed an inward 2 1/2 somersault.
Highlights from Saturday's prelims included Auburn's Kirsty Coventry claiming the top seed in the 200-meter backstroke, with her time of 2:07.24 ... Kara Lynn Joyce of Georgia, winner of Thursday's 50-meter freestyle title, posted a time of 54.40 to lead the field in the 100 free ... Oregon State senior Birte Steven posted the fastest time in the world this season in the 200 breaststroke, with her winning prelim mark of 2:22.97 ... freshman Whitney Myers of Arizona recorded the top qualifying time of 2:07.30 in the 200 butterfly ... in the final prelim of the afternoon, Auburn posted the best 400 freestyle relay time of 3:39.78.
Heading into Saturday's finals, Auburn leads the field with 399 points and should return to Alabama with another national championship. Georgia is second with 278 points, holding off an Arizona team which made some ground Friday and now trail the Bulldogs by 17 points; after Thursday the Wildcats trailed Georgia by 49 points. California is in fourth place with 179.5 points and Florida is fifth with 171 points.
Purdue is in 33rd place with its five points earned by McCambridge Friday off the three-meter springboard.
For complete and detailed results of the NCAA Championships, fans can log onto www.AggieAthletics.com or www.ncaachampionships.com.