Wingate junior Katie Pheil (Ocala, Fla.) made her first appearance at the NCAA Division II swimming and diving championships a memorable one, participating in six school record swims in Birmingham March 6-9. Pheil claimed four All-American trophies. She was the number one qualifier in the 200 Backstroke morning preliminaries (1:57.89) before finishing fourth in the championship finals (1:57.93). The triumphant time was 1:57.26.
Pheil established two individual school records and participated in four school record relay swims. Pheil swam the anchor leg as Wingate finished fourth in the 400 Medley Relay (3:44.56). She was joined by freshman Rita Koryukova (Omsk, Russia) and juniors Charlotte Cornet (Brussels, Belgium) and Valerie Dembny (Bremen, Germany).
Her best individual finish was a tie for second in the 200 Freestyle (1:48.53). Pheil’s fourth All-American distinction came in the 800 Freestyle Relay. Pheil, Dembny, Cornet and senior Elly Speer (Manly, Sydney, Australia) earned All-American laurels with an eighth-place finish (7:33.50).
In February, Pheil helped Wingate win the 2013 Bluegrass Mountain Conference swimming meet in Charlotte. At the 15th annual BMC meet, Pheil won the 200 Backstroke event with a time of 1:57.38. Pheil’s 200 Back time was a meet, conference and school record. Pheil and the 200 Free Relay and the 400 Medley Relay teams set school, conference open and conference meet records in victorious BMC swims.
