David Chao's Victory in 200-Free Highlights Second Day at UAA's

Atlanta, Ga., February 19, 2010 - Junior David Chao won the University Athletic Association (UAA) championship in the 200-yard freestyle to highlight a number of impressive performances for the Washington University in St. Louis men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams on the second full day of action at the 2010 UAA Championships on Friday in Atlanta, Ga.

Both the WU men’s and women’s squads climbed one spot in the team rankings after the second day of competition. The men now stand in fourth place out of eight schools with a team score of 680.5 points, while the women moved up to fifth place, tallying a score of 569 points. Emory remains in first in both the men’s and women’s competition.

Chao submitted an NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 1:41.42 as he captured the conference championship in the 200-free for the first time in his career. His time represented one of four NCAA ‘B’ cut times for the WUSTL men’s team on Friday and one of three all-UAA performances.

Senior Dima Galkin turned in the other individual all-UAA performance, grabbing third place in the 100-yard breaststroke with a provisional cut time of 58.46. It is the first time Galkin earned all-UAA honors in the 100-breast, after an all-conference third-place finish in the 200-breast in 2009.

The men’s 800-freestyle relay also garnered all-UAA recognition with a third-place showing to close out Friday’s evening session. Senior Brian Kushner, freshman Mark Minowitz, sophomore Chris Valach and Chao had a time of 6:55.70, a ‘B’ cut, but not the Bears’ fastest time of the year in the event. Senior Alex Beyer rounded out the provisional cut times for the WU men, posting a time of 4:09.19 in the 400-yard individual medley preliminaries, and he went on to take eighth in the final.

In women’s action, sophomore Karina Stridh turned in the only all-conference performance of the day, making it her second of the meet after a third-place showing in the 50-yard freestyle on Thursday. She was the runner-up in the 100-yard backstroke, setting a provisional time of 58.20 and earning all-UAA honors in the event for the first time in her career.

The foursome of freshman Veronica Tse, Stridh, junior Micki Duncan and senior Jessie Lodewyk grabbed fifth place in the 800-freestyle relay with a ‘B’ cut time of 7:51.40. Lodewyk also swam to an individual provisional qualifying time as she placed sixth in the 200-free in 1:55.76.

Junior Karin Underwood competed in a 200-backstroke time trial, where she set a new WU season-best time and NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 2:05.78.

The Washington U. men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will wrap up competition at the UAA Championships on Saturday, Feb. 20, in Atlanta, Ga.