NMU swimmer earns All-American honors

Courtesy of NMU Athletics

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Sophomore diver Molly Kearney, of the Northern Michigan University swimming and diving team, is an All-American diver after a third place finish in the one-meter dive at the NCAA Championship from the Crossplex Complex on Thursday (March 7). As a team, the Wildcats have tallied 30 points and sit in 20th place at the halfway point.

“Molly did a fantastic job today,” NMU coach Heidi Voigt said. “She was very consistent and worked hard in all of the dives. She fought through some shaky dives in the prelims and was so close to getting second.”

Kearney tallied 452.35 points in the event and was one tenth of a point from second place. She scored 16 points for NMU.

“Four of the eight divers in the finals were from the GLIAC,” Voigt added. “We come from such a tough conference and Molly stayed relaxed and focused against familiar competition in the finals. She’s such a competitor.”

Freshman Crystal Bennet was one spot off All-America status in the 100-yard butterfly. She finished ninth in 55.8 seconds and scored nine points for the Green and Gold.

Sophomore Madisen Sechena scored five points for Northern in the 400 individual medley with a 12th place finish. She finished the race in 4:28.22.

“I was really happy with our two swimmers today,” said Voigt. “It’s hard to come back and swim faster in the night session but both Crystal and Maddie did that tonight. Crystal won her heat and that was exciting.”

Bennet is the lone Wildcat in action on Friday with the 100 breaststroke. The preliminaries begin at 10 a.m. with finals set for 5:30 p.m.

Live results can be found at: http://www.gulfswimming.org/tmp2/