Cohen Sets NCAA Swim Record

Olympic gold medalist Tiffany Cohen set an NCAA record in the 500-yard freestyle Thursday night as Texas jumped to an early lead in the NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championship.

Cohen swam the 500 freestyle in 4:37.90 to break the NCAA tournament and NCAA championship record of 4:38.91 set by Stanford’s Marybeth Linzmeier in 1984.

Texas, the meet’s defending champion, took three of the first four events in the meet, which was interrupted for about 20 minutes Thursday night when a thunderstorm knocked out power at the University of Alabama’s Aquatic Center.

A total of 57 teams will compete in 20 events in the weekend-long meet.

Olympic gold medalist Mary Meagher of California also set an NCAA championship meet record, finishing the 100-yard butterfly in 53.50 seconds. Jill Sterkel of Texas set the previous record of 53.54 seconds in 1983.

In the other two finals finished before the power outage, Tori Trees of Texas won the 200-yard backstroke in a time of 1:59.11. And Texas took the 200-yard medley relay in 1:42.21 behind the swimming of Debbie Risen, Kim Rhodenbaugh, Jodi Eyles and Ann Drolson.