SEE MELISSA GATES' RECORD-SETTING SWIM
Posted on March 15, 2012
Click on the video below to watch senior Melissa Gates' NCAA Division II 50-yard freestyle championship swim. Her time of 22.59 seconds set an NCAA D-II Championship record. On March 17 swimmer Melissa Gates claimed her third career NCAA
national title, winning the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 49.35 seconds at
the NCAA Division II Nationals. Gates, who won her second consecutive national title in the
50-yard freestyle event on March 14, becomes just the second Vulcan
student-athlete in Cal U history to win three individual national titles. She joins Brian Ferrari, who won the NCAA Division II
cross-country national title in 1983 and consecutive 10,000-meter track and
field national crowns in 1983-84. Gates finishes her brilliant collegiate career as a 10-time
All-American (six individual, four relay) and helped the Vulcans finish a
program-best 12th nationally. Gates set an NCAA D-II Championship record, winning the
finals by 0.41 seconds as she finished with a time of 22.59 seconds at the
national meet in Mansfield, Texas. Gates joins three Vulcan athletes as repeat national
champions: 190-pound NCAA Division II wrestling champion Ken Hackman
(1988-1989), 10,000-meter national track champion
Brian Ferrari (1983-1984), and 118-pound NAIA wrestling
champion Bill DePaoli (1977-1979). She will swim in the 2012 Olympic Team Trial this summer. Other Cal U swimmers competing at the four-day national
competition include Clarissa Enslin, Kelsey Nuhfer, Jess Machmer, Alyssa
Novotny and Caitlin Sirkoch. A year ago the Vulcans finished 14th at the NCAA
Division II national meet.
Update
Senior Melissa Gates has won the NCAA Division II 50-yard
freestyle championship for a second consecutive year, becoming just the fourth
student-athlete in Cal U history to win two individual national titles.
