Tartans Begin Competition at NCAA Championships

(SHENANDOAH, Texas) - The Carnegie Mellon University women's swimming and diving team had five athletes compete at the 2015 NCAA Division III Women's Swimming and Diving Championships on Wednesday, March 18 as competition kicked off.

The 200-yard medley relay team of junior Kira Singhaus (Cherry Hill, N.J./Cherry Hill West), freshman Kimberly Hochstedler (Mishawaka, Ind./Penn), sophomore Gillian Crews (Fairfax, Va./Oakton) and sophomore Allison Kirkby (West Chester, Pa./Conestoga) just missed earning All-America Honorable Mention status as it DQ'd in the consolation final after finishing 14th during the preliminaries with a time of 1:45.51.

The team would have finished 14th overall had it not DQ'd in the final session.

Crews also competed in the 50-yard freestyle, finishing 40th overall in a time of 24.50.

In diving, sophomore Machika Kaku (Irvine, Calif./University) who made her first appearance on the national stage, finished 23rd on the 3-meter board after tallying 309.10 points.

On Thursday, Crews will swim the 100-yard butterfly while all four will be in the 200-yard freestyle and 400-yard medley relays.