Sophomore swimmer Meghan Thiel competed at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships last weekend, finishing in the top 40 in both the 500- and 1,650-yard freestyles.
Thiel was the only PL swimmer selected to go to the meet and the first AU swimmer to qualify since Gabriella Csepe in 1994. She reached the NCAA "B" standard qualifying time last year in these two events, but she wasn't selected to go to the national event. But this year was different for the two-time PL Swimmer of the Year
In her first event Thursday, the 500 freestyle, Thiel finished her preliminary race in four minutes 52.11 seconds, the second-best time in her career in this event. It wasn't good enough to put her in the finals, but it placed her 39th out of 54 competitors. The event was eventually won by Laura Conway of Georgia.
For her second race of the meet and last of the season, Thiel swam the finals of the 1,650 freestyle. She finished in 16:44.95, a time that placed her 32nd out of 40 swimmers, but only eight seconds off of her personal best that she set previously this year at the PL championships.
While this was the first time Thiel had raced against the best collegiate swimmers in the country, it wasn't her first time in a major national meet. She previously qualified for the U.S. Olympic trials, both in 2000 as a high school freshman and in 2004 as a high school senior.
In addition, she also competed in the U.S. Conoco Nationals in her first year at AU, finishing 36th in the 1,500 freestyle.
When asked to compare her experiences at the NCAAs to her previous major competitions, Thiel said, "It was much more team orientated than those other meets. There were even people cheering for racers during warm-ups, something that I had never seen before."
AU coach mark Davin was also proud of his sophomore star in her first true national test.
"It was a different meet than all the others because there was a ton of pressure," he said. "There were swimmers there who were faster than even those at the Olympic trials. However, with this increased competition, it was good to see her keep up with the others, even passing them at the end of her 500 race."
If this year's success is any indication of her future at AU, more experience at the NCAA championships could be in store for Thiel.
In giving her goals for next season, Thiel said tongue-in-cheek, "limiting [my] amount of desserts, even though that probably won't happen." But then she quickly added, "Although qualifying for the 2008 Olympic trials for graduation would be nice too"
