OKLAHOMA CITY – Competition commenced Thursday at the NAIA Women's Swimming and Diving National Championships at Oklahoma City Community College.

Four Lady Tigers swam in a total of three races in day one of the three-day meet, including the 200-yard medley relay, the 50-yard freestyle, and 800-yard freestyle relay.

First in the pool for CU was the team of Jessica Cook, Emily Hunter, Bailey Foxworth, and Shelby Mattingly for the 200-yard medley relay preliminary heat. With a previous best of 2:01.59, the Lady Tigers dropped 3.26 seconds, dipping under the 2:00 mark. Cook swam her 50-yard backstroke leg in 32.15 seconds, followed by Hunter's breaststroke  in 34.27, then Foxworth's butterfly in 27.17, and Mattingly anchored the relay with a 24.74-second freestyle performance. The relay's final time of 1:58.33 captured third place in the heat, but did not advance them to the finals.

Next, Mattingly swam in the 50-yard freestyle preliminaries after qualifying with an A-cut time of 25.46. She too managed to shave off time, dropping .37 seconds for a personal record of 25.09 seconds. The junior placed 33^rd in the individual competition.

The last Thursday event for the Lady Tigers was the 800-yard freestyle relay.  Cook (2:10.99), Hunter (2:12.29), Mattingly (2:10.59), and Foxworth (2:01.61) combined their efforts once again, each swimming a 200-yard freestyle leg. Their finish time of 8:35.48 was more than 12 seconds better than their seed time of 8:47.96. The Lady Tigers were the bottom seed coming in, but managed to beat out three faster-ranked teams to finish in 19^th place.

Coach Casey Smith was impressed with her athletes' performance. "I am very pleased with our results today! Each of the athletes put forth wonderful effort and saw great results, both individually and in the relays. It was a great start to our weekend," she said.

"I am really looking forward to our events tomorrow," she said. "Now that we've worked through some of the Championship nerves, we're ready for a great day."

Day two of the NAIA Championships will begin Friday, March 6 at 9 a.m. CT. The Lady Tigers will compete in five events both individually and in relay teams tomorrow, including the 200-Yard Freestyle Relay, 100-Yard Butterfly, 200-Yard Freestyle, 400-Yard Medley Relay.

Complete NAIA Schedule | Video | Live Results | Twitter: @CUSwimTeam

CU Remaining Events by Day

Friday, March 6
200-Yard Freestyle Relay
100-Yard Butterfly
200-Yard Freestyle
400-Yard Medley Relay

Saturday, March 7
100-Yard Freestyle
200-Yard Butterfly
400-Yard Freestyle
1650-Yard Freestyle