NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt swimming will conclude the 2022-23 season when individual members of the program compete at the CSCAA National Invitational Championship, which begin Thursday.
The three-day event will be held at the Beacon Health Aquatic Center in Elkhart, Indiana. Six Commodores are scheduled to compete at the meet based on meeting qualifying standards during the course of the season, with the group including Megan Ciezczak, Faith Knelson, Gabriela Pierobon Mays, Ellie Taliaferro, Mercedes Traba and Kailia Utley.
“This is it, we want the last one to be a fast one. Let’s go have fun and compete so that we can wrap up the season on a high note,” said head coach Jeremy Organ. “It’s an opportunity for us to compete again, the hard part is after preparing for a big meet like the SEC Championships having to come back and do it again two to three weeks later. It will be good for us to compete at one big meet and do it again, having that experience when we make the NCAA Championships [in the future] will be important for us.”
Both Knelson and Utley met the NCAA B/NIC A Standard in a pair of events at the SEC Championships last month, with the former qualifying in the 100 and 200 breast and the latter in the 100 and 200 fly. Utley also met the NIC B Standard in three other races, the 500 free, and 100 and 200 back.
Traba achieved the NIC B Standard in the 500 and 1,000 free as well as the 200 fly and 400 IM, with Ciezczak making the mark in the 50 and 100 free and the 100 back. Taliaferro recorded NIC B Standard qualifying times in the 200 free and 200 IM, Pierobon Mays met the mark in the 100 back and Knelson also had a time that made the standard in the 200 IM.
Taliaferro set school records in the 200 free and 100 IM her first season at the collegiate level, adding a freshman record in the 200 IM as well. At the SEC Championships in February, Traba posted a new school standard in the 500 free, with Knelson accomplishing the feat in the 100 breast and Utley breaking the previous mark in the 200 fly; she would go on to lower that record again at the Tennessee Last Chance Meet one week later.
Utley swam at the National Invitational Championship a year ago, competing in the 50, 100 and 200 fly.
The Dores will also take part in the 200 and 400 free, and the 200 and 400 medley relays at the meet. Preliminary heats will begin at 8:30 a.m. CT each day.
