SwimSwam Picks OBU Fourth at Nationals

SHAWNEE – While Oklahoma Baptist places high expectations on its swimming and diving program, the teams venture into uncharted territory March 14-17 at the NCAA National Swimming and Diving Championships.
 
SwimSwam, a website dedicated to college swimming, predicts the OBU women to finish fourth, ahead of teams the Lady Bison finished behind at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championships.
 
That site has Celina Marquez, Marizel Van Jaarsveld, Tammy Price and Victoria Fonville all scoring more than 20 points each.
 
Head Coach Sam Freas warns about accepting those predictions, since they are based on previously recorded times. Fonville, for instance, swam the nation's top 50 free early in the season but has been beset by illness since then.
 
"It's ridiculous," Freas said. "If we win some events and place in the top 10 as a team, I'll be ecstatic, but we have people missing practice right now. That's an indicator that we're not going to do very well."
 
That scoring also doesn't include diving.
 
OBU will have 11 women at the national meet.
 
Van Jaarsveld swims the 200 and 400 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke.
 
Juliana Cifuentes is in the 100 breaststroke and Fonville will swim the 50 free.
 
Price is in the 50 free, the 100 and 200 backstroke and the 100 butterfly and Faith Moss swims the 100 butterfly.
 
Marquez is in the 100 butterfly, the 100 and 200 backstroke and Suzanne Afchain represents OBU in the 100 and 200 backstroke.
 
Genesis Veliz and Cassidy Wright will be diving for OBU.
 
OBU also swims in the 200 free, 400 free, 200 medley and 400 medley relays and Miriam Avila and Julie Day will be involved in the Lady Bison relay events.