Johnston Earns All-American Honors at NCAAs

Thursday, March 18

Lafayette, Ind.

All Day

Duke University

Day One

Divers Headed for Ohio State Diving Invitational

Johnston Earns All-American Honors at NCAAs

3/19/2010 8:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving

By: Duke Sports Information

West Lafayette, Ind. – The 2010 NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships got underway on Thursday at Purdue's Boilermaker Aquatics Center and by the end of the day, Duke Swimming and Diving was one All-American healthier.

Distance freestyler Ashley Twichell kicked things off for the Blue Devils on Day One in the 500 freestyle. Seeded 49th entering prelims, Twichell needed to make a dramatic improvement on her time in order to reach the event's finals in what was an extremely talented field of competitors. The junior swam to a time of 4:46.66, taking 43rd place in the nation.

Sophomore diver Abby Johnston was Duke's standout on the first day of the championships. She started off the day with a strong prelims performance, scoring 319.70 points and sitting squarely in third place heading into finals. In the final round, Johnston posted a score of 331.80. Johnston's performance earned her fourth place in the nation, not to mention her second career All-America honors.

Diving Coach Drew Johansen said of the performance “Abby was composed throughout the prelims and finals. It was a great performance and a great way to build for the three-meter.”

Tomorrow Johnston will compete in her best of the three disciplines, the three-meter board. Twichell will take to the pool again on Saturday for the 1650 freestyle.

Live stats, results, photo galleries and more can be found at http://www.ncaa.com/sports/w-swim/champpage/w-swim-div1-index.html. Daily recaps of the championships can be found at GoDuke.com.