March 20, 2009

From Navy Sports Information

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Navy's Thuy-Mi Dinh (Jr., Anaheim, Calif.) and Tara Chapmon (Jr., Virginia Beach, Va.) both narrowly missed breaking their own school records during the opening day of competition at the NCAA Swimming Championship, Thursday at College Station, Texas.

Dinh, who is the first Navy and Patriot League swimmer to advance to multiple NCAA Championship meets in a career, posted a time of 22.56 during the trial heats of the 50 freestyle Thursday. That clocking ranks fourth in Navy history to her own record of 22.36 and placed her 32nd in the field of 63 swimmers on the day.

A time of 22.25 was needed to place 16th and advance to tonight's consolation final.

"We have now taken Thuy-Mi to several major meets over the last year and this was by far her best approach and race of all of them," said Navy head coach John Morrison. "I think she is a little disappointed that she didn't match her qualifying time, which was the school record, but this is still a great ending to a wonderful season she put together. Not many swimmers can say they have advanced to any NCAA Championship meets; she has gone to two of them and this just fuels her desire to make it three in a row next year."

Chapmon, the 2008 and `09 Patriot League Swimmer of the Year, began her busy three days of competition at the championship by recording a time of 4:45.62 during the preliminary heats of the 500 freestyle. This effort just missed her own school record time of 4:45.12. Chapmon's clocking placed 40th out of 64 swimmers on the day, which is an improvement of 10 spots from her initial seed of 50th.

The cut-off time to qualify for tonight's consolation final in the 500 freestyle was 4:41.06.

"It was a great swim for Tara," said Morrison. "In the past she has struggled on the first day of a three-day meet, but that was not the case today. She didn't show any nerves at all for being in her first NCAA Championship race. We are very excited about her prospects during her remaining two races this week."

Chapmon will compete in the 200 freestyle Friday before taking part in the 1650 free Saturday.