Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Big Al Open
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Aemisegger Wins NCAA Showdown In Saturday Highlight Of Big Al Open
December 01, 2007 | Women's Swimming and Diving
The women's 400 IM final during Saturday's session of the Big Al Open featured six swimmers who recorded at least NCAA B-cut times in their preliminary performances. By the final 100 meters, only two of them matters. Princeton sophomore Alicia Aemisegger won the highlight event of the weekend by nearly two seconds over Penn State's Kaitlin O'Brien; both were in the Top 10 in the 400 IM finals at the 2007 NCAA championships.
No. 11 Penn State holds a firm grasp on first with 756 team points, while No. 26 Princeton is second with 436 points. Pittsburgh is third with 360 points with only one day remaining.
Princeton opened Saturday with a fifth-place finish in the 200 medley relay, as the team of Meredith Monroe, Courtney Kilkuts, Justina DiFazio and Megan Waters finished in 1:45.11.
The 400 IM was next, and Aemisegger and O'Brien put on a show for an excited DeNunzio crowd. Aemisegger, who placed second in the 400 IM at NCAAs, took an early lead on O'Brien, the ninth-place finisher at NCAAs. The Penn State sophomore made up ground in the backstroke, but she never overtook her Princeton rival. Aemisegger went back ahead in the breaststroke and pulled away in the free to win in an A-cut time of 4:06.79.
Monika Friedman finished ninth in the 100 fly in 57.26, and DiFazio picked up a fourth-place finish in the 200 free in 1:49.79. Kilkuts, coming off her dramatic A-cut performance in the 200 IM Friday, placed 10th in the 100 breast in 1:04.60, and Monroe took ninth in the 100 back in 57.19. Freshman Carolyn Littlefield added a fourth-place performance in the 1-meter diving competition with 231.55 points.
The 800 free relay team of Aemisegger, DiFazio, Ming Ong and Monroe took second in a time of 7:24.57 to end the session. Sunday's preliminaries will begin at 10 a.m. and the finals will begin at 6 p.m. The order of events will be:
Sunday
25 - W 1650 free
26 - M 1650 free
27 - W 200 back
28 - M 200 back
29 - W 100 free
30 - M 100 free
31 - W 200 breast
32 - M 200 breast
33 - W 200 fly
34 - M 200 fly
(break)
35 - W 400 free relay
36 - M 400 free relay