Louisville’s Worrell sets U.S. record in 100 butterfly at NCAAs

Louisville senior Kelsi Worrell easily broke her own NCAA and American record in the 100 butterfly, winning that event in 49.43 seconds at the women’s NCAA championships in Atlanta. Worrell’s previous record, 49.81 seconds, came at last year’s NCAAs.

“Kelsi breaking her own American record by almost four-tenths of a second was definitely special,” Louisville Coach Arthur Albiero said. “She now has eight of the all-time top ten performances in that event in the NCAA. She delivered a dominant performance over a very talented field.”

Cardinals freshman Mallory Comerford earned silver in the 200 freestyle. Her time of 1:42.54 was a close second to Georgia’s Brittany MacLean’s 1:42.42.

U of L junior Andee Cottrell was sixth in the 100 breaststroke.

Worrell, Comerford, Cottrell and Alinda Kendzior teamed up to finish third in the 200 medley relay.

UK’s Galyer honored

Kentucky’s Danielle Galyer was presented with the Elite 90 award, which honors dedication to both academics and athletics, prior to Friday’s finals session. The honor is given annually to one athlete from each of the NCAA’s 90 championship sports. This was the fourth consecutive year that Kentucky has had an athlete win an Elite 90 (previously Elite 89) award. Galyer, who has a 4.0 GPA in psychology, follows Chelsea Oswald (track and field, 2012-13), Sam Malone (men’s basketball, 2013-14) and Aldila Sutjiadi (women’s tennis, 2014-15).

Galyer finished 12th in the 100-yard backstroke on Friday.

UK’s Rebecca Hamperian, a Lafayette graduate, was 12th in 3-meter diving. That followed up her 11th-place finish in 1-meter diving on Thursday.

This story was originally published March 18, 2016 at 9:53 PM with the headline "Louisville’s Worrell sets U.S. record in 100 butterfly at NCAAs."