GWANGJU – The American team is gaining momentum after the record breaking women’s 4×100 freestyle relay.
The all-star relay team includes Abbigail Weitzeil, Shannon Vreeland, Madeline Locus, and Lia Neal, all of whom have previous experience competing at a national level. “Abby kicked off the race well. She gave me a great lead so I took it and expanded upon it once I hit the water,” said Vreeland, an Economics Major at the University of Georgia. Taking the leg after Vreeland was Locus, who is a teammate at the University of Georgia.
Widening the gap between the strong US team and second place Japan was Neal, a sophomore at Stanford University. “She did an amazing job bringing us home at the end. She ended up hitting the wall a whole second faster than in the morning prior,” said Vreeland. “When we looked up and saw we got the record, it was really exciting because the Russians were very strong last summer as they were the previous Universiade record holders.” The USA Team clipped the previous record of 3:38.15 from 2013 with a swift time of 3:38.12.
Vreeland, a two time Universiade athlete, is looking to continue the momentum into the remaining days of competition. Currently the USA Team is in the medal count lead for swimming claiming four Gold and one Bronze.
Lizzy Whitbeck (USA), FISU Young Reporter
