Published March 22, 2009
The Michigan women’s swimming and diving team gathered in the diving well and splashed around as if it had just won a national title. But missing were the soaked championship t-shirts and the trophy floating in the pool.
More like this
Instead, the Wolverines celebrated the end of a long, rough season.
The Wolverines finished 24th at the NCAA Championships at the Student Rec Center Natatorium in College Station, Texas.
After posting the nation's second-fastest time in the preliminaries of the 200-yard individual medley at Big Ten Championships, senior Margaret Kelly expected to compete in the event final at the NCAA Championships. But, chest spasms caused her to sit out the rest of the Big Ten meet, where she was likely to dominate the competition. It was questionable if Kelly would even compete at NCAAs.
Over the weekend, Kelly not only competed, but she earned All-American honors in the 200-yard individual medley with an eighth-place finish (1:56.24). The performance marked her second consecutive All-American accolade in the event.
"She has not been able to do any upper body strength work for over a month now,” Michigan coach Jim Richardson said. “So to be able to do that in a power event like the 200-yard IM is a testament to her toughness, her talent and her perseverance.”
But Kelly’s efforts weren’t enough to carry the Wolverines to a third consecutive top-10 performance.
Michigan got off to a rough start in the first preliminary race of the championships. Freshman Kristyne Cole jumped an exchange in the 200-yard freestyle relay, disqualifying the team’s performance. Cole was able to bounce back and finish 57th in the 500-yard freestyle (4:51.02).
But not all was lost for the Wolverines.
Fifth-year senior Caroline Rodriguez placed third (52:32) in the consolation final of the 100-yard butterfly to earn an All-American honorable mention. Behind Rodriguez, Kelly touched the wall 21st in the event (52.74).
“I had an amazing time putting on that winged-helmet cap today,” Rodriguez said. “Being able to represent Michigan in the finals tonight was just a blast. I had so much fun. I enjoyed every minute of it.”
The race marked Rodriguez’s final individual race of her collegiate career. The road to College Station has been a long and bumpy one for Rodriguez.
A year ago, the thought of competing again was just a dream. After numerous knee surgeries, she decided to transfer from a talented group at Stanford to fulfill her last year of eligibility with the Wolverines. Aside from adjusting to the weather, she had to adapt to training indoors and a different workout regimen after spending three years with the Cardinal.
It didn’t take Rodriguez long to make an impact. She began practicing with the Wolverines at the start of the winter term and competed in her first meet against conference rival Ohio State a month later. She had a pair of second-places in the 100-yard backstroke and 100-yard butterfly to spur Michigan to their first conference victory of the season, 169.5-129.5.
Outfitted in blue camouflage swimsuits, others in the traditional swimsuits with the block M, some celebrated the last time wearing the winged-helmet swimming caps.
Rodriguez was just one of many swimmers competing in their final collegiate meet. Senior Hannah Smith swam in the 100-yard backstroke along with Rodriguez. Rodriguez touched the wall 33rd (53:62) while Smith finished not too far behind in 39th (54:00).
While the Wolverines swam well, the performances were far from the breakout swims they had at the Big Ten Championships held at Canham Natatorium a few weeks ago.
“It is hard after a full taper at Big Tens to swim as fast here, but I think we swam well,” Smith said. “We swam tough. I thought we swam a tough race.”
On the last day of competition, the team of Rodriguez, Kelly, Smith and freshman Liz Koselka swam a season-best time in the 400-yard freestyle relay to finish eighth overall (3:18.17) in the consolation final, good enough for an All-American honorable mention accolade in the event.
“It has been a lot of fun,” Smith said. “Us seven girls, we are really close and we joke around and have a lot of fun. I think that is really important and this has been the best NCAAs I have had.”
