Swim tetam prepares for national tournament after third-place finish

The SMU women’s swim team begins the NCAA National Championships Thursday March 21 after placing third in the Conference USA Championships with 664.50 points from several strong contributors.

At the C-USA Championships women’s swimmer Isabella Arcila won swimmer of the meet marking the fourth season in a row that an SMU swimmer has won the prestigious award. The women’s team brought in multiple golds at the meet. Isabella Arcila finished the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:55.86 and Rachel Nicol finished first in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:11.00. Finishing in 49.14 seconds, sophomore Nathalie Lindborg earned first place in the 100-yard freestyle. The women’s 400-yard freestyle relay team, including Arcila, Monika Babok, Nina Rangelova and Emily Vavourakis, also won first place with a final time of 3:18.62.

Nina Rangelova finished second by just one-hundredth of a second in the 100-yard freestyle at 49.15. Deanna Matthews placed second in the 200-yard backstroke at 1:57.54.

In third place, Anna Volchkov clocked in at 1:58.75 in the 200-yard backstroke and Danielle Villars at 1:59.47 in the 200-yard butterfly.

The Mustangs will hope to keep their success going in Indianapolis, this coming Thursday, starting at 11 a.m against a deep field in the national championships.