Women's Swimming: Waters finishes top 40 at NCAA Championships

At the NCAAs, the top 16 finishers in each event are given All-America honors, with the top eight placed on first-team and the next eight receiving honorable mention. The times of the top qualifiers are very close, so any swimmer can pass others and move into the top 16 in any event. Though she did not earn any All-America finishes, Waters completed the event with three impressive top-40 finishes.

On Thursday, Waters swam the 50-yard free. She entered the meet seeded 22nd with a qualifying time of 22.36 seconds.

In her most exciting finish of the weekend, Waters matched her lifetime best time of 22.36 for a three-way tie for 19th place. This race was her first career top-20 NCAA finish, and Waters missed All America Honorable Mention by only .03 seconds.

The next day Waters competed in the 100-yard fly as the 41st seed with a qualifying time of 53.38. Waters knocked .1 seconds off of her qualifying time to finish in 27th place with a time of 53.28. Breaking her own record, Waters set a new Princeton record in this event.

Waters’s strongest event, the 100-yard free, was on the final day. She is a two-time Ivy League Champion in this event and entered with her highest seed of the weekend at 15th with a qualifying time of 48.66.

Unfortunately, for the first time over the weekend, Waters was unable to match or improve on her qualifying times. She ended her phenomenal swimming career for the Tigers with a 34th place finish and a time of 49.23.

Head coach Susan Teeter said she was extremely pleased with Waters’s times.

“I am very proud of Megan’s performances this past weekend,” head coach Susan Teeter said.

“Traditionally at the NCAAs, it is so hard to make the meet that over 50 percent of the swimmers do not improve on their times once they get there. Megan was able to set a new University record in the 100[-yard] fly and equal her best 50[-yard] free swim.”

Megan Waters will be remembered in the Princeton swimming program for a long time. Her individual accomplishments include three school records in the 50-yard free, the 100-yard free the and 100-yard fly.

Waters also was part of three record-earning relay teams including the 200-yard medley with a time of 1:39.80, the 400-yard medley at 3:39.20 and the 400-yard free with a time of 3:20.33.

She helped lead the Tigers to three Ivy League Championship titles.

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“I think Megan’s legacy will be that if you work on details religiously to make yourself a better athlete, the payoff and rewards will be big,” Teeter said.

“Megan’s commitment to detail, as well as helping her teammates with details, has been unmatched in our program. Hopefully that legacy will live on for many years to come. I’m just really happy for Megan to have had such a fantastic finish to her Princeton career.

“She has worked so hard and has certainly deserved all the accolades and accomplishments she has had this year.”