Nine Women Earn Spots to Compete at NCAA Championships

(INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.) – Nine Carnegie Mellon University women's swimmers have earned the right to compete at the 2020 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. The nine women invited to the championships is the second most for the Tartan women under 13-year head coach Matthew Kinney. The championships will be hosted by the Old Dominion Athletic Conference and the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, North Carolina, on March 18-21.

Four freshmen, one sophomore, one junior and three seniors make up the list of invited women for Carnegie Mellon. Senior Emma Nicklas-Morris (Winston-Salem, N.C. / RJ Reynolds) will be making her fourth appearance while senior Mary Day (Warren, N.J. / Mount Saint Mary Academy) and junior Emma Graham (Mount Lebanon, Pa. / Mount Lebanon) are making their second.

Nicklas-Morris will be swimming the 200-yard IM, 400-yard IM and 200-yard butterfly. Her top time this season in the 200-yard IM is 12th in the nation while her 200-yard butterfly time is 15th and her 400-yard IM time is 19th. The senior earned points at past NCAA Championships by finishing in the top 16 in all three events as a sophomore and junior while she finished inside the top eight in both IM races as a freshman.

Like she did in 2018, Day was invited to the meet as part of the 400-yard freestyle relay. Graham competed on the 800-yard freestyle relay in 2018 and is part of the 200-yard freestyle relay invited to this year's championship meet. Both relays have set school records this year and are both currently 17th in the nation. Joining Day on the 400-yard freestyle relay is freshman Clare Brown (Grantham, N.J. / Lebanon), freshman Mathea Myhrvold (Raleigh, N.C. / Wakefield), and freshman Tiffany Tseng (Westford, Mass. / Westford Academy). The 200-yard freestyle relay will comprise of Graham, sophomore Madeline Hoedemaker (Pennington, N.J. / Hopewell Valley Central), Myhrvold, and Tseng.

By virtue of achieving B cuts during the season, the Tartans will also field a relay team in the 400-yard medley relay, currently 20th, and the 800-yard freestyle relay, currently 23rd best.

Tseng was also invited to the meet in the 200-yard backstroke where her time is 18th in the nation. The freshman will also swim the 100-yard backstroke after achieving a B cut time ranked 28th during the season. Fellow freshman Bonnie Wang (Vancouver, BC / Collingwood School) was also invited in the 200-yard backstroke where her time is 10th nationally. She'll also compete in the 100-yard backstroke after achieving a B cut time ranked 24th.

Senior Taylor Brown (San Antonio, Texas / Johnson) individually qualified for the 1,650-yard freestyle with a school record time that is 20th in the nation. Brown will join Nicklas-Morris in the 400-yard IM after achieving a B cut time that is currently 24th amongst swimmers at the meet.