Husker Distance Swimmers Make Waves in Preseason

Five Husker distance swimmers swam the first event of the 2019-20 season today at the CSCAA National Collegiate Open Water meet in Lawrence, Kan. The preseason race was a mass start 5000 meter swim at Lone Star Lake. Sophomore Audrey Coffey brought home a top-ten finish in eighth place with a time of 1:05:46.9, and junior teammate Rachel Powers followed in 11th (1:06:12.6).

80 collegiate swimmers competed in the women's race. The Huskers placed two more in the top half, freshman Molly Rosenthal (1:09:12.1) and sophomore Maggie Berning(1:09:12.5). Sophomore Katelyn Kilpatrick (1:09:34.3) also competed for NU.

Husker Head Coach Pablo Morales explained why those five Husker swimmers were competing at the prestigious event, which was hosted by the University of Kansas for the fourth consecutive year. "These are swimmers that are going to be competing in the 1,500-yard swim as one of their events. The limit [for the CSCAAChampionships] is five swimmers per team and it just so happens that we have five individuals that will be competing in the 1,500 this year."

The Husker distance swimmers will look to use their strong showing at today's meet to jump-start their regular season. Before the first official meet against South Dakota State on Oct. 11, the Huskers will hold their final preseason event with the annual Scarlet and Cream Intrasquad meet at the Bob Devaney Sports Center Natatorium on Friday, Sept. 27 at 4 p.m.