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Lopus Earns All-America Status in the 100 Butterfly
3/20/2009 12:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
March 20, 2009
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Freshman Whitney Lopus (Scottsdale, Ariz.) had a career day at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on Friday at the Student Recreation Center Natatorium. Lopus broke the current University of Utah school record in the 100 fly on her way to the finals in the event.
"Like I said before, coming into this meet as a freshman is hard. Whitney's 500 free wasn't as good as we would have liked it," said Utah head coach Greg Winslow. "Our race strategy in the event needs more work. Whitney bounced back from the setback and performed great today."
In the preliminaries, Lopus finished in a time of 52.41, ending in 13th place overall. The time beat the old record of 52.44, previously set by Lopus at the Mountain West Conference Championships. This is the third time this season that Lopus has broken the previous record in the event.
In the finals, Lopus finished in a time of 52.91, putting her in a tie with Alana Dillette from Auburn for 15th place overall.
"[Lopus] really did a nice job bringing it home in the second 50 meters," said Winslow. "We set up a really solid race plan and finished strong. I'm very proud of her."
Lopus' finish earns her All-American honors in the event as one of the top 16 finishers in the event. Lopus is now one of only three Utah women swimmers to ever be named to the NCAA All-American team. The last student-athlete to receive the honor was Allison McInturff in 2007 in the 200 free.
Lopus will continue competition tomorrow in the 200 fly.
"We are expecting even better from Whitney tomorrow," said Winslow. "The 200 fly is her best event and she should be able to do something special."
Preliminaries for the event begin at 11 am and the finals start at 7 pm. All times are central standard time.
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