March 15, 2009
SWIM: CHIDSEY AND O'DONNELL EARN ALL-AMERICA HONORS AT NCAA
CHAMPIONSHIP
Houston, Tex. - Le Moyne College senior Ricky Chidsey
(Liverpool, NY / Liverpool) earned First Team All-America
status with an eighth-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke on
Saturday night at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships.
Freshman Katie O'Donnell (Delmar, N.Y./Bethlehem)
earned Honorable Mention All-America honors with an 11th-place
finish in the 200-yard backstroke.
Chidsey, who picked up his second All-America honors of the week,
touched the wall in a time of 1:48.82 to finish eighth. He
qualified for the finals with an eighth-place time of 1:48.91 in
Saturday morning's preliminary heats. On Friday night, Chidsey
placed 12th in the 100-yard backstroke to pick up Honorable Mention
All-America honors. He finished in 50.34 seconds in the finals
after registering a season-best time of 50.29 seconds in the
preliminaries.
O'Donnell, who recorded school-record performances in each of her
three events at the Championships, hit the finish line in 2:03.94
to break her own school record and place 11th in the 200
backstroke. In the preliminaries, O'Donnell set a new school
standard in the event with a time of 2:04.24 to earn a spot in the
finals. On Friday morning, O'Donnell recorded a school-record time
of 57.67 seconds in the 100-yard backstroke preliminaries to place
17th, just missing out on a spot in the finals. O'Donnell received
her first career Honorable Mention All-America honors on Wednesday
in the 200-yard IM. O'Donnell finished 16th in the event in 2:07.99
after posting a school-record time of 2:06.77 in the prelims. Her
time of 2:06.77 eclipsed 2008 graduate Alison Lesher's previous
school record by more than four seconds.
Complete
Results
