Three School Records Highlight Little Rock Swimming and Diving Season Finale

OCALA, Fla. - School records from Jaelle Carlson and Caitlin Romprey highlighted a strong postseason showing for the Little Rock swimming and diving team at the CSCAA National Invitational Championships (NIC) this past week, helping the team to a 24th place finish overall out of 54 women's teams at the meet. Carlson lowered her own 100 butterfly record that she set last season, while Romprey lowered her 200 backstroke record set last month and demolished the 100 backstroke record previously set in 2018.

"This was a very tough meet to compete at," said head coach Nathan Townsend. "If you looked across all the events, a lot of the athletes attending added time. I told our group we just have to get up and race and not worry about the clock."

"I'm super proud for our group on their mindset and how they raced," he continued. "We finished the meet with three school records and a top-25 team finish. All our relays were the second-fastest in school history as well. Not easy to do with such a quick turn around from conference. They all deserve a much needed break, but I'm excited to get back to work in the off-season though! Gotta keep leveling up."

The NIC provides a post season championship event for Division I swimmers and divers that have achieved NCAA B cut or Zone standards, but are not selected for the NCAA Division I Championships, creating a strong field to race against. The six Trojans that appeared in the meet were right in the thick of the competition, turning in a top-8 finish in the 200 freestyle relay as well as qualifying for the B finals in three individual races. Those individual races were Carlson's 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly, where the junior came in 20th and 19th, respectively. Meanwhile, Romprey took 17th in the 200 backstroke.

Carlson's time of 54.95 in the 100 fly lowered her previous mark of 55.10 set last season, capping off a season where her name litters the school record board, appearing next to not just the 100 fly but also four other relays.

Now owning both backstroke records, Romprey broke the two-minute barrier in the 200 backstroke, going 1:59.92 in prelims before shaving off exactly three more tenths in finals for a 1:59.62. Her swims were over half a second faster than her time at the Missouri Valley Conference championships, where she first broke the school record. Romprey cut off a whole half second off the previous 100 backstroke record as well, dropping the mark down to 55.39.

Other individual best times include Lauren Pieniazkiewicz's 50 breaststroke time of 29.24 and her 100 IM time of 58.38, good for fourth on Little Rock's Top Times list. Elena Nikolaeva dropped time in the 100 freestyle as well, touching the wall at 52.18.

The Trojans raced in both the 200 and 400 medley relays along with the 200 and 400 freestyle relays, finishing within the top 16 of all four relay events. The group turned in the second-fastest times in program history in the 200 medley, 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle relays and the third-fastest time in program history in the 400 medley relays.

Check out the updated Trojan Top Times list here. View full results from the NIC meet here.

For the latest information on Little Rock Swimming and Diving, make sure to check out LRTrojans.com. You can also find the team on social media at @LittleRockSwim on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

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