Koch's NCAA Championship Diary - Entry No. 2

Becky Koch talks about the preliminaries of the 500 freestyle from the morning of day one of the championships.

Becky Koch Placed 11th in preliminaries of 500 freestyle, to advance to the consolation finals.

March 20, 2003

This week, Becky will be compiling a diary from the NCAA Championships in Auburn. Below is her second diary entry, following the preliminaries of the 500 freestyle on day one of the NCAA Championships.

Diary Entry 2

"Today, I swam my first race, the 500 yard freestyle. In warm-ups I felt great; my paces were far below were they needed to be. I was in the third to last heat and seated next to the third fastest swimmer in the event. I felt great during the race; the girls next to me took off at the 50 mark. My 200 split was well over a second under the time I won Big East with. Unfortunately, I did not swim as fast as I would have liked; however, I made it back to the consol heat. I'm seeded 11th going into tonight's finals and I'm ready to go. One of the big things I need to remember going into the race is that I need to swim my own race. I can't control what other people split. As long as I remember this, I am very confident that I will improve my time from Big East."

-Becky

Villanova University