Oregon State
Pacific-10 Championships
Women's Swimming Places Seventh at the Pac-10 Championships; Three Events Qualify for the NCAAs in the Closing Two Days
February 28, 2004 | Women's Swimming
Feb. 28, 2004
Oregon State qualified three events for the NCAAs in the closing two days of the Pacific-10 Championships Friday and Saturday evening. Senior All-American Birte Steven qualified in the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke, while junior Mari Embertson qualified in the 400 individual medley.
Friday night was Embertson's show. Besting her school record by over four seconds, Embertson touched the wall fourth in the 400 IM for an automatic qualifying time of 4 minutes, 14.80.
"Mari was defnitely the star tonight," Beavers head coach Larry Liebowitz said. "She smashed her school record and swam magnificently."
Also qualifying for the NCAAs Friday night was Steven in the 100 breaststroke, finishing fourth with a time of 1:01.88.
Two other swimmers for OSU placed in the 400 IM - sophomores Monika Miroslaw and Leah Schaab. Miroslaw finished 20th with an NCAA consideration time of 4:23.05, while Schaab placed 23rd with a swim of 4:26.95.
Sophomore Ausra Pacebutaite finished 13th in the 100 backstroke, touching the wall in 56.43. Junior Kristin Huston finished with a 24th place time of 1:51.61 in the 200 freestyle.
The 400 medley relay team of Pacebutaite, Steven, sophomore Christina Kinney, and Huston finished in 3:46.29 to round out the top six. Their time beat the former school record set in November.
"Friday was a great day of racing," Liebowitz said. "But, our racing on Saturday has potential to be even better."
Saturday's races marked the end of the Championships, and placed the Beavers in seventh place ahead of Northwest rivals Washington and Washington State with a score of 405.5.
Steven was the star of Saturday for the Beavers, with a second place finish behind the new fastest American breaststroker, Stanford senior Tara Kirk. Steven's time of 2:10.30 was not her fastest swim, but was enough to edge out Agnes Kovacs of Arizona State's time of 2:10.32.
The long distance trio of freshman Sandy Hong, and sophomores Kristi Kuhlmey and Danielle Kinney, finished 19th, 22nd and 24th, respectively. They had times of 17:07.63, 17:19.70, and 17:37.39.
The 200 butterfly displayed Miroslaw's 14th place time of 2:03.01, and Christina Kinney's bonus consolation final time of 2:02.94.
Pacebutaite added onto her accomplishments with a 16th place finish in the 200 backstroke, touching the wall in 2:08.48. Huston also had another top finish in the 100 freestyle, with an NCAA consideration time of 51.13.
The 400 freestyle relay team of Huston, freshman Brie Marhenke, Christina Kinney, and Steven timed in at 3:28.58 - good enough for sixth place.
The NCAA Championships will be held March 18th - 20th in College Station, Tex.
Team Scores After Day 3 1 Stanford 952.5 2 UCLA 844 3 Arizona 821 4 California 740 5 Arizona State 642 6 USC 501 7 Washington 300 8 Oregon State 264.5 9 Washington St.196
Final Score 1 Stanford 1,380 2 UCLA 1,329 3 Arizona 1,221.5 4 California 1,117.5 5 Arizona State 863 6 USC 806.5 7 Oregon State 405.5 8 Washington 396 9 Washington St. 278
