Livingston takes platform preliminary round at NCAA Championships
MINNEAPOLIS -- Texas junior diver Jessica Livingston totaled 350.20 points to capture the platform diving preliminary round Saturday afternoon at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. Livingston will compete for her first NCAA title in this evening's platform finals. Livingston (The Woodlands, Texas), the 2006 U.S. National Champion in the women's platform event, took the lead after her third dive and held on after the five-dive preliminary round at 350.20. With a victory in the evening finals, Livingston would become Texas' third NCAA platform diving champion and its first since 2004, when Nicole Pohorenec captured the crown. Sophomore Kara-Jayne Salamone (Cooper City, Fla.) will add points for Texas after qualifying for the consolation finals in the platform event. Salamone totaled 246.35 to grab the final consolation berth. Junior Mary Yarrison (Springfield, Va.) placed 19th at 224.05. UT senior Elizabeth Tinnon and sophomore Alexi Spann placed in the top eight in the 200-yard breaststroke to reach the evening finals. Tinnon (Bowling Green, Ky.) took sixth in the 200 breaststroke preliminary round in 2:11.64, and Spann (Austin, Texas) placed seventh in a personal-best time of 2:11.74 for the sixth-fastest 200 breaststroke swim in UT history. The 400 freestyle relay quartet of sophomore Hee-Jin Chang (Seoul, Korea), senior Connie Brown (Andover, Mass.), senior Elaine Ferritto (Columbus, Ohio) and sophomore Alex Basso (Houston, Texas) took 12th in 3:18.85. Chang touched the first leg in 50.01 before Brown followed with a solid 48.91 in the second. Ferritto clocked 49.87 in the third leg and Basso anchored the relay in 50.06. Senior Katie Robinson (Dillsboro, Ind.) will participate in this evening's consolation final of the 200 butterfly after taking 13th place in 1:58.29. Sophomore Jacqueline Martin-Lacey (Nashville, Tenn.) took 33rd in 2:00.97. Ferritto contributed a personal best in the 200 backstroke, taking 19th in 1:57.67 and topping her previous personal best by over a second. Brown took 31st in the 100 freestyle in 49.88, while Basso placed 48th in 50.33. Chang scratched from the event. NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships 200 Backstroke 100 Freestyle 200 Breaststroke 200 Butterfly 400 Freestyle Relay
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