March 20, 2003

AUBURN, ALA. - The North Carolina women's swimming team is tied for 22nd place after the first day of the 2003 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming Diving Championships at Auburn University. The Tar Heels scored 10 points on the first day of competition. UNC was led by senior Christy Watkins who finished 10th in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 22.71 seconds.

The only other scorer for UNC on Thursday was junior Kelly Weeks who finished 14th in the 500-yard freestyle. Weeks made it into the consolation final by earning the No. 14 seed in the morning with her career best swim of 4:46.97. She swam a time of 4:48.53 at night and still maintained 14th.

Watkins qualified in the No. 9 spot in the morning in the 50-yard freestyle with a time 22.69 seconds. She went only .02 slower in the consolation final but she did slip from ninth to 10th.

In other swims on Thursday, junior Whitney Smith finished 39th in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:51.69, junior Becky Acker was 43rd in the 200-yard individual medley with a clocking of 2:03.76 and junior Jessi Perruquet tied for 17th in the 50-yard freestyle with a career best swim of 23.03 seconds in the event.

North Carolina's 400-yard medley relay finished 22nd. The relay consisted of Watkins (57.40), Acker (1:03.43), Weeks (56.70) and Perruquet (49.76).

Action continues on Friday with trials at noon EST and finals at 8 p.m. EST.