COLUMBIA, Mo. - Five members of the Mizzou women's swimming team earned invitations to the 2015 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships, announced on Wednesday. Senior Danielle Barbiea (Springboro, Ohio), redshirt junior Abby Duncan (Champlin, Minn.), sophomore Katharine Ross (Des Moines, Iowa) and freshmen Sharli Brady (Burlington, Ky.) and Hannah Stevens (Lexington, Ohio) will all represent the Tigers at the Championships March 19-21 in Greensboro, N.C.
The five individual swimming invitees are a women's program high under Head Coach Greg Rhodenbaugh and just shy of Mizzou's record six in 2009. Missouri is also eligible to swim all five relays: the 200 free relay, 400 free relay, 800 free relay, 200 medley relay and 400 medley relay. The Tigers' relay-only swimmers will be announced at a later date.
Missouri's divers will vie for NCAA Championship bids next week at the NCAA Zone D Diving Championships March 9-11 in Iowa City, Iowa.
Barbiea earned her third straight NCAA berth after qualifying in both the 100 fly and 50 free. She just missed a bid in the 100 free, falling two spots short, but is eligible to swim in the event at the Championships because she has an NCAA `B' time in the event. The senior enters NCAAs seeded sixth in the 100 fly with an NCAA `A' cut of 51.51 and is a two-time All-America honorable mention in the event.
In her first season competing for Mizzou, Duncan earned her third career NCAA bid after making the cut during her freshman and sophomore seasons at Auburn. She earned berths in both the 200 breast (seeded 17th) and 100 breast (seeded 18th) and can also swim the 200 IM at the meet. As a freshman for Auburn in 2011-12, Duncan placed 13th overall in the 100 breast at the Championships, earning All-America honorable mention accolades.
Ross made it a perfect two-for-two in Championship invitations after bids in both the 100 breast and 200 breast. She enters the meet ranked 11th in the 100 breast, an event she earned All-America honorable mention honors in as a freshman after placing 13th overall. Ross can also swim the 200 IM, missing an invite in that event but three spots.
Brady stands as the only Tiger to earn invites in three events, the 200 fly, 200 IM and 400 IM. A strong showing at the recent SEC Championships bumped Brady up in the event rankings, and enters the meet seeded 22nd in the 200 fly, 25th in the 400 IM and 34th in the 200 IM.
Missouri will be represented in the backstroke events by Stevens, who claimed bids in both the 100 back and 200 back. She owns the 12th fastest time in the country in the 100 back (52.04) and ranks 16th in the 200 back (1:52.98) and will also be eligible to swim the 50 free at the Championships.