Swimmers compete at NCAAs

FAYETTEVILLE– The Arkansas swimming and diving team saw senior Yi-Ting Siow and junior Jamie Marks compete in the preliminaries of their events on the first day at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships at the Boilermaker Aquatic Center on the Purdue University campus.

Siow competed in the 200-yard individual medley while Marks swam in the 500y freestyle.

"We had a rough start to our meet this morning," Arkansas coach Jeff Poppell said. "Jamie never really got going in her 500 free and Yi-Ting just missed getting a second swim in the 200y IM. Yi-Ting is battling some sickness right now so we are going to scratch her from the 400y IM tomorrow to see if we can give her an extra day of rest to get her healthier for her best event, the 200y breaststroke on Saturday."

Siow just missed qualifying for the finals in the 200y individual medley, finishing 20th with a time of 1:58.84. The top 16 in each event advance to the finals.

Marks turned in a time of 4:54.34 in the 500y freestyle to place 61st.

Marks will return to the pool Friday to compete in the 400y individual medley while senior Leah Pierce will swim in her first event, the 100y breaststroke.

Preliminaries will begin at 10 a.m. CDT with finals set at 6 p.m. CDT.