PISCATAWAY, N.J. (Dec. 2, 2015) – Seniors Morgan Pfaff (Red Lion, Pa.) and Joanna Wu (Kent, Wash.) along with junior Rachel Stoddard (Hillsborough, N.J.) will represent the Rutgers swimming and diving team at the 2015 AT&T Winter National Championships, held Thursday, Dec. 3 through Saturday, Dec. 5 in Federal Way, Wash. Each will compete in two events for the Scarlet Knights.
The three-day event will feature a long-course format, with opportunities to achieve qualifying times for the 2016 Olympic Games.
“We’re all excited for the women traveling to the national long course event this week,” said head coach Petra Martin. “It’s a great opportunity for our program to face the best swimmers in the country and gain some valuable experience in one of the fastest competitions not only in the United States, but the world. The meet also demonstrates to future recruits our ability to perform at quality and high profile competitions, while providing our current athletes with another shot at Olympic Trial cuts.”
Preliminaries for each race will take place during the morning session, with finals set to begin at 6 p.m. of each night.
Pfaff represents RU first in the pool, competing in the 200 individual medley during Thursday action. Pfaff already produced a NCAA ‘B’ qualifying time this season in the race, hitting the wall with a time of 2:00.83 during the Frank Elm Invitational on Nov. 20. Pfaff will also race in the 200 fly on Saturday.
Wu will see action in the 100 back on Friday and compete in the 200 back on Saturday. Wu owns program records in both events and has secured NCAA ‘B’ qualifying times for both events this season.
Stoddard qualified for two races during the three-day event and will participate in the 100 breast on Friday and the 200 breast on Saturday. Stoddard owns NCAA ‘B’ qualifying times in both breast events, secured Nov. 21-22 during the Frank Elm Invite.
The rest of the team will compete on Saturday, when the Scarlet Knights host Boston University and Connecticut at the RU Aquatics Center. The meet will be split into two sessions, starting at 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., respectively.
Swimming news courtesy of Rutgers Swimming & Diving.