COLUMBIA, Mo. – The University of Nebraska at Omaha swim team won the 400-yard freestyle relay and broke three more school records, taking home fifth place overall at the NCAA Division II championship meet Saturday night.
The team of
Jessica Hessel,
Kristy Gmeiner,
Megan Guthmiller and
Cait Hopkins won the meet's final event with a time of 3:25.52, edging out the team from Truman State by just 0.35 seconds. The winning time broke the old team record, set in 2002, by more than four seconds.
The win gave the Mavericks a final total of 242 team points, good for a fifth place finish. Truman State won its seventh national title in eight years with 461.5 points. Drury came in second with 449, North Dakota finished third with 324, and UC-San Diego took fourth with 302. Wayne State came in sixth with 206.
Lindsey Kline took fifth place in the 1650-yard freestyle race, breaking her third school record in two days, clocking in at 17:20.61. That time broke Veronica Barna's previous record, set in 2004, by more than 10 seconds.
Ashley Barna placed 12th with a time of 17:33.91.
Hessel took fifth place in the 100-yard freestyle, posting a time of 51.13 seconds, another UNO record, bettering Jamie Haferbier's time of 51.49 seconds, set in 2002. Gmeiner took 13th place, and Hopkins placed 16th, with times of 52.23 and 52.65 seconds, respectively.
Other UNO swimmers who placed were
Jessica LaFave, who finished 15th in the 200-yard backstroke in 2:07.82.
Laura Kemp took 16th in the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:26.68.