UK freshman swimmer Asia Seidt a first-team All-American for second straight day

Asia Seidt is only a freshman, but she’s already a two-time first-team All-America swimmer.

Seidt earned the distinction by finishing eighth in the finals of the 200-yard individual medley Thursday on the second day of the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in Indianapolis. One day earlier, the Sacred Heart graduate was part of UK’s sixth-place 800 freestyle relay.

“Going into it, I was so nervous being in the ‘A’ final as a freshman” Seidt said after the 200 medley finals. “It doesn’t really happen often, and so I talked to (Coach) Lars (Jorgensen) about how nervous I was and he just told me, ‘Don’t overthink it. Go in. You have your own lane and no one else is going to affect that, so just swim your race.’ It’s always good to get your first individual swim out of the way, just to know there’s a routine. So I know that preparing for my two next races will be a lot like tonight.”

Seidt, the only UK swimmer to advance to a final on Thursday, finished in 1:55.19.

Kentucky is 15th in the standings with 46 points — more than it scored in last season’s meet when the Cats finished 22nd. First-place Stanford has a commanding lead with 213 points, 77 more than second-place California.

UK’s Geena Freriks twice broke her own school record in the 500 freestyle Thursday, finishing second in the consolation final to earn All-America honorable mention honors.

UK’s 400-yard medley relay of Danielle Galyer, Madison Winstead, Seidt and Freriks also earned honorable mention recognition. They finished eighth in the consolation final with a school-record time of 3:31.75. Winstead is a freshman who graduated from Paul Laurence Dunbar.

This story was originally published March 16, 2017 at 11:37 PM with the headline "UK freshman swimmer Asia Seidt a first-team All-American for second straight day."