Lewis, Crawford Earn Honorable Mention All-America Honors on First Day of NCAA Championships

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Freshman Augusta Lewis finished 12th in the 200-yard individual medley, and junior Jocelyn Crawford finished 15th in the 50-yard freestyle to highlight the first day of the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships at the Greensboro Aquatic Center on Wednesday.

The 200-yard medley relay team of Crawford, sophomore Janet Tran, junior Bryn Edwards and sophomore Natalia Orbach-Mandel also qualified for the consolation finals to earn honorable mention All-America honors as a relay team as well. Crawford swam the opening backstroke leg of the race to give her All-America distinction in two different strokes in the same day, while Edwards the breaststroke, Tran swam the butterfly, and Orbach-Mandel the freestyle.

Sophomore Mia Syme also came agonizingly close to qualifying for the consolation finals as well in the 500-yard freestyle, but ended up in 18th place (with the top 16 advancing). Syme had a 4:59.22, her top time of the season, but was just 19 hundredths of a second behind the 16th place finisher (Delan Ambrosen of Kenyon). Her top event, the 1650, will come on Saturday, where she is seeded ninth nationally.

Crawford swam a 23.45 in the 50 free during prelims to place 12th out of the 63 competitors, earning her way into the evening finals.  Lewis, meanwhile, swam a 2:04.78 to come in fourth of eight in the consolation finals to come in 12th overall and earn five points for the CMS team total. The Athenas added a 16th place finish in the 200 medley relay to give them nine points for the day, placing 25th nationally. 

CMS will be back in action tomorrow for another full day of events, featuring the 200-yard freestyle relay and the 400-yard medley relay. Lewis will be back at it for the 400-yard IM, while freshman Ava Sealander of the Athenas and sophomore Marco Conati of the Stags will contend for All-America honors in the 100-yard butterfly. Junior Kendall Hollimon will also be in action in the one-meter dive as he tries to repeat as a first-team All-American in that event, where he placed seventh last year.