Evans and Jennings are Headed to the NCAA Championships

Mar. 5 – (PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – Junior Charlotte Jennings (Yardley, Pa./Notre Dame) and freshman Molly Evans (Butler, Pa.) will both be making their first trip to the Division III NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on Thursday, March 13 - Saturday, March 15. This year's championship will be hosted by The College of Wooster at Corwin M. Nixon Aquatic Center on the campus of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Jennings will be competing on both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving boards and is the first diver to represent Carnegie Mellon University at the championships since All-American Julia Pavia finished fifth on the 3-meter board in 2006.

Evans, who earned the right to compete in the championships with an automatic qualifying time of 2:04.67 in the 200-yard backstroke, will compete in three events, each on separate days. The 500-yard freestyle will be on Thursday and her time of 5:04.64 ranks her 13th with the top 2008 time of 4:57.42 coming from Kendra Stern, a freshman from Amherst College in Massachusetts.

The 100-yard backstroke will take place on Friday where Evans is currently ranked 9th with a time of 58.48 and is the only freshman in the top ten. Brittany Sasser of Amherst holds the top spot with a time of 55.60 and also holds the NCAA record which she set last year.

Evans will be able to warm up for the 200-yard backstroke, her best event of the championships, since it will be on the last day. She is currently fourth and once again Sasser holds the top spot with a time of 1:59.79 and the NCAA record of 1:57.55.

If either Jennings or Evans finish in the top eight they'll earn All-America status.