Alabama
Women's NCAA Championship
Kaylin Burchell Earns Silver at NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships
3/20/2015 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
GREENSBORO, North Carolina - Alabama senior Kaylin Burchell grabbed a silver medal in the 100 breaststroke on day two of the 2015 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships being held in Greensboro, N.C. this week.
"What a great night for Kaylin," UA head coach Dennis Pursley said. "To go a lifetime best, better the school record and finish second in the nation, that's pretty special and it was a lot of fun for us on the deck to see."
Burchell bettered her own school record on the way touching the wall in a time of 58.38 seconds, just six-hundredths behind Stanford junior Sarah Haase's first-place time.
A native of Richmond, Ky., Burchell turned in the highest NCAA finish by a member of the Alabama women's team since Anne Poleska finished second in the 200 breaststroke in 2005.
Burchell, named the SEC Championships Swimmer of the Meet after winning SEC titles in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes last month, was seeded fourth coming into Friday's final after posting a 58.72 in prelims.
For Burchell, Friday's second place NCAA finish is the continuation of a very good year which started at this meet in 2014. At last year's NCAAs, she earned All-America honor for the first time after taking seventh in the 100 breaststroke. In the summer she earned a place on the United States National Team and was subsequently named to this summer's USA Pan American Games team. She followed that up with an undefeated regular season in the 100 breaststroke and a pair of individual SEC titles.
"Kaylin has worked long and hard over a lot of years and overcome a number of obstacles and challenges to get to this point and it's very gratifying to see her having this kind of success," Pursley said. "It's great to see it all coming together for her in her senior year. It's one of those storybook endings that you wish for all the athletes."
The senior comes back on Saturday to swim the 200 breaststroke, where she is seeded fifth.
Players Mentioned
