March 22, 2002

AUSTIN, TEXAS - The North Carolina women's swimming and diving team qualified three of their five entries Friday for the finals at the 2002 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships at the University of Texas. The preliminaries in five events were conducted Friday morning with championship and consolation finals in those events being held tonight.

The Tar Heels qualified 12th in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:42.19 and the relay will swim in tonight's consolation final in that event. The relay consisted of junior Christy Watkins (25.82), senior Katie Hathaway (28.12), sophomore Kelly Weeks (25.72) and sophomore Jessi Perruquet (22.53).

Perruquet had the best swim of the morning for Carolina and qualified for the championship final in the 200-yard freestyle. She finished fourth in a time of 1:46.29. Hathaway qualified for the consolation final in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:01.51 as she placed 13th in the preliminaries.

Other entries for Carolina Friday morning were Weeks in the 100-yard butterfly where she finished 53rd in 57.20 and sophomore Becky Acker in the 100-yard breaststroke where she finished 26th in 1:02.97.