University Southern California Trojans
USC
NCAA Championships
Hartley Wins NCAA Title On 3-Meter Springboard
March 18, 2005 | Women's Swimming & Diving
March 18, 2005
Junior Blythe Hartley won her third career NCAA title and first on the 3-meter springboard to highlight USC's women's swimming and diving team's second day at the 2005 NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., on Friday (March 18).
Hartley, a two-time NCAA champion in 2002 who took off 2004 to train for the Summer Olympics, won the title with 586.15 points, well ahead of second-place finisher Nancilea Underwood of Iowa (561.84).
Hartley, who was second on 1-meter on Thursday, has now finished among the top three in all eight NCAA finals in which she has competed. She was second on 3-meter in 2003 and third in 2002.
Her win gives her three career NCAA titles, joining Kristine Quance and Lindsay Benko as the only Trojan women swimmers or divers to win at least that many individual championships.
"Overall, my dives tonight were good," Hartley said. "I was consistent, and that was the key. I felt as though I missed my fifth and sixth dives, but I already had a few solid dives by then. I was most nervous about dives number two and three, but they were my best dives, and I was happy to see that."
USC's 800y free relay unit of senior Joanna Fargus, freshman Emily Goetsch, sophomore Cait Connealy and sophomore Kalyn Keller earned All-American honors with their eighth-place finish in 7:14.32. It marks the fourth year in a row that Troy has posted a top eight finish in the event.
Earlier, Goetsch made her NCAA individual point-scoring debut, earning a second swim in the 100y fly and finishing 14th overall (53.99).
USC's 200y medley relay also swam in the consolation finals, taking 12th. The unit of Fargus, sophomore Kristina Sieper, senior Marisa Kozak and Connealy finished in 1:41.95.
Fargus finished 23rd in the 200y free (1:48.23) while Connealy was 47th (1:50.78). Junior Stacy Vazhenin was 38th in the 400y IM (4:24.67) while Sieper was 38th in the 100y breast (1:04.18).
USC finished the second day in 10th with 79 points.
Full results for the meet can be found on-line HERE.
The meet concludes Saturday (March 19). Preliminaries are at 11 a.m while finals start at 7 p.m. (CST).
