BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - Western Kentucky University senior Claire Donahue competed in her first event at the 2011 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on Thursday at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center in Austin, Texas.
Donahue placed 53rd in the preliminaries of the 50-yard freestyle event with a time of 23.03 seconds.
"We used this morning as a dress rehearsal as far as the wakeup swim and the timing of warm-ups to try and get ready for tomorrow," WKU coach Bruce Marchionda said. "With that being the goal to rehearse everything, it was good. We'll work on a couple little kinks and get ready to go tomorrow."
The Johnson City, Tenn., native next competes Friday in the 100y butterfly event where she is seeded fourth with her season-best time of 51.95.
"I think she has to stay calm and focus on the little details of the race," Marchionda said. "At this point, we are just making sure we are focused on the little things that she can control and not worry about the things that she cannot control."
At last year's championships, Donahue became the first female swimmer and only the second person in WKU history, to qualify for the finals session. She was one of only 16 female swimmers in the nation to be named All-America by CollegeSwimming.com after finishing fourth in the nation in the 100 fly.
Preliminary heats are set to begin at 11 a.m. CST each morning followed by finals at 7 p.m. Live streamed video will be made available for Friday and Saturday sessions via ESPN3.
