July 8, 2009

INDIANAPOLIS - Rising sophomore Jenny Connolly won the 100m backstroke `B' final on Wednesday evening at the ConocoPhillips USA National Championships.

Connolly, a native of West Lafayette, Indiana, captured her finals heat in a career-best time of 1:00.69, .07 second ahead of her nearest competitor, Rachel Bootsma, at the Indiana University Natatorium on the campus of IUPUI.

Although it came in the `B' final, Connolly's time was tied for the third fastest in the event at the national championships.

She swam a time of 1:01.62 to tie for ninth with Bootsma in the 100m back prelims on Wednesday morning and missed making the `A' final by just .31 seconds. Connolly, however, improved her time by nearly a full second in the finals to touch the wall first in the `B' final.

Hayley McGregory won the 100m back U.S. title with a 1:00.07 performance in the finals. Earlier in the day, she swam a time of 59.93 in the prelims to earn the top seed.

Rising junior Tricia Weaner also competed in the 100m back, finishing 33rd in the prelims with a time of 1:03.77.

On Tuesday, Connolly placed second in the `C' final of the 100m fly with with a career-best time of 1:00.16.

She had an outstanding debut season in the Orange and White, shattering the UT records in the 100y back and 200y back, as well as swimming on a pair of school-record-setting relays. Additionally, she earned All-America honors in five events and was named to the All-SEC Second Team as well as the conference's All-Freshman squad.

Weaner, who picked up her second straight All-America award as a member of the 200y medley relay this past season, is also scheduled to compete in the 200m back on Friday.

On Thursday, rising sophomore Samara Gelb and rising junior Alex Barsanti are slated to compete in the 100m breast, while former Lady Vol Christine Magnuson will make a run at another national title in the 50m free. Magnuson captured her second straight U.S. title in the 100m fly on Tuesday.

Live results of the 2009 Conoco USA National Championships can be found at http://www.omegatiming.com/livetiming/index.htm. Swimnetwork.com is offering a free live web stream of the finals each day.