ATLANTA – Taylor Ruck of Kelowna, B.C., captured her first individual NCAA title on Friday, winning gold in the 200-yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA D1 Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships being held at the McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta. She also added a bronze in the 400-yard medley relay with her teammates from Stanford University.

Meanwhile defending champion Maggie Mac Neil of London, Ont., finished third in the 100-yard butterfly to take bronze. She also raced in the 400 medley relay with her teammates from the University of Michigan, and finished fifth.

Ruck, who returned to Stanford this season after taking two years off to prepare for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, dominated in the preliminaries, clocking a 1:41.89 to advance to the final in first. In the final, she led the race from the start and bettered her time to a 1:41.12 to take gold, just ahead of Isabel Ivey from Cal in second with a 1:41.59. Kelly Pash from the University of Texas took the bronze with a 1:42.38.

“Tonight’s 200 free is one of my top ten favourite races I think. The crowd was wild and the energy of the whole meet has been great so far. The fact that two of my teammates were in that race made it that much better,” said Ruck, who also won gold in the 800-yard freestyle relay with her teammates Wednesday.

“I’m just so glad to have my teammates here behind me. This whole season has just been such a blast being back, and I’m so grateful to have them here,” said Ruck

Mac Neil, the reigning Olympic, NCAA, world long-course and short-course champion in the 100 fly, finished fifth in the prelims, with a time of 50.76. Racing out of Lane 7 in the finals, she was in second at the 50 behind Torri Huske from Stanford, and then took the lead for the second half of the race, only to be passed by Kate Douglass from the University of Virginia in the last 25 yards. She was then just out-touched by Huske by .01 to finish third with a time of 49.18.

Also representing Canada in finals today were Sophie Angus representing Northwestern University who finished seventh in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 58.00, and Mabel Zavaros from Burlington, Ont., who finished sixth in the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:06.22, representing the University of Florida.

The Championships wrap up on Saturday with the 200-yard backstroke, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard breaststroke, 200-yard butterfly, and the 400-yard freestyle relay.

Watch the 200 free: https://youtu.be/thtX33M2nrM

Watch the 100 fly: https://youtu.be/0yDqsP_KDKw

Watch the 100 breast: https://youtu.be/3S3oVwwFefk

For full results, please visit: https://swimmeetresults.tech/NCAA-Division-I-Women-2022/