Erasmus Earns 100 Fly All-America Honors At NCAAs

[PonyPride]

From SMUMustangs.com:

Erasmus Earns 100 Fly All-America Honors At NCAA Championship
Junior Places 11th In 100-Yard Butterfly; Nicholas Competes In 100 Breast Prelims

March 18, 2016

ATLANTA (SMU) – Junior Marne Erasmus clocked a 51.47 in the Consolation Final of the 100-yard butterfly to earn All-America honors at the 2016 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championship held at the McAuley Aquatic Center on the campus of Georgia Tech. This is the third individual honor for the Mustang, who finished in the top 16 of the event for the third straight season.

Erasmus improved on her prelim time by just over a half of a second for a season best mark. In the morning’s preliminary round, Erasmus turned in the 11th fastest time to advance as part of the event’s top 16, posting a 51.98.

Junior Tara-Lynn Nicholas also represented the Mustangs at the Championship, swimming in the 100-yard breaststroke prelims Friday morning. Nicholas finished tied for 21st clocking a 1:00.47, which was good for fifth in her heat.

Both swimmers won the events at the 2016 American Athletic Conference Championship to help the Mustangs take home the title for the second straight season. The duo also competed on three of SMU’s five winning relays.

No strangers to the NCAA Championship, the juniors both came into the 2016 edition as two-time individual All-Americans and both were part of the 400-yard medley relay team that finished 13th a season ago. Erasmus was also part of the 400 medley relay that set the SMU record and placed 11th in 2014. Both also hold SMU standards in their respective events.

Final team scores will be calculated at the completion of the Championship on Saturday evening. The event wrapped up the NCAA season for the Mustangs, but select members of the team will travel to Mesa for the Arena Pro Series April 14-16.

The Ponies also have several team members competing for a chance to represent their respective countries at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio this August. Erasmus and Nicholas, as well as junior Kirsty McLauchlan will attend South African trials, while Anna Cheesbrough, Vicky Cunningham and Hannah Rogers will compete in Great Britain.

Volunteer assistant coach Nina Rangelova has qualified for Bulgaria and her counterpart Isabella Arcila has reached the Olympic B qualifying times and will be competing at the South American Games starting March 30 to solidify her place on Colombia’s Olympic Team. Recent graduate Rachel Nicol looks to repeat her performance from the World Championships and qualify for Canada, while Nathalie Lindborg will be shooting for a place on Sweden’s free relay at the Swedish Trials.

Visit SMUMustangs.com for more information on the program, and follow the team on social media for updates.