After a long and successful season, swimmer Eva Fabian ’16 and diver Lilybet MacRae ’17 were the lone Yale athletes to compete in the women’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships this year. Fabian competed in the 500- and 1,650-yard freestyle swims while MacRae took on the three- and one-meter dives.
“They both had strong performances representative of their hard work this season,” swimmer Catherine Wang ’16 said. “We were all so excited for them.”
Though young, both MacRae and Fabian performed well for Yale in the 2013–2014 season. MacRae blew away the competition with several first place finishes throughout the year. Fabian also consistently finished in the top spots, earning top-three finishes in almost every meet.
MacRae had to go through an earlier round of competition at Virginia Tech to qualify for the NCAAs. During the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships, MacRae scored 541.15 points in the one-meter dive, taking third. On day two of the qualifying competition, she scored a total of 574.90 points in the three-meter dive, again earning third. Her placements in the two events allowed her to continue on to the NCAA Championships.
Fabian did not have to go through a preliminary competition before heading to the Championships, earning her spot by recording a qualifying time during the season. On day one of the NCAAs, she competed in the 500-yard freestyle but her preliminary time did not allow her to continue on to the finals. During day three, Fabian finished in 36th place in the 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 16 minutes, 27.07 seconds.
“This was my second NCAAs. It was a great experience again. I do not feel that I performed my best but I am very optimistic with how my training is going,” Fabian said.
MacRae started day one with her preliminary one-meter dive, earning 237.40 points but not qualifying for the finals. The preliminaries for the three-meter dive came the next day. She earned 271.90 points, about fifty points behind the qualifying score of 327.15.
Fabian and Shelby Fortin from Penn were the only Ivy League swimmers to compete in the 500-yard freestyle. Fabian was also the only Ivy League swimmer to compete in the 1,650-yard freestyle. MacRae was the only diver from the Ivies to compete in either dive.
Now that the season is completely done, the girls look forward to what next year will bring.
“I believe the team is going to be incredible next year,” Fabian added.
The swimmers and divers are expecting a strong freshman class to join the already solid group of young Bulldogs.
Though the women are done, the men still have one more week of competition. Brian Hogan ’16 will compete in the 1,650-yard freestyle at the men’s NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas this weekend.
“I’m really pumped for NCAAs,” Hogan said in a message. “It’s a chance to compete with the best guys in the country, and to show all the progress that our program has made in the past few years.”
Competition begins on Thursday, March 27.