ALONA KYSELOVA
Alona Kyselova did what some thought could not be accomplished in the swimming pool and thus she is the female athlete of the week at Incarnate Word for February 16 to February 22. This is the third time for her to be at the top of the weekly list.
This time she captured two gold medals at the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association championships and in doing so set two new UIW school records, two marks that some thought might never be lowered.
First, Kyselova won the 200-IM in a time of 2:00.28 undercutting the previous mark of 2:01.53 by All-American Casey Hurrell-Zitelman in 2011. This new time also is a “B” cut for the NCAA national championships.
Then, she moved to the 400-IM and was even more impressive in setting the school mark with 4:13.15, another “B” cut. The previous mark was 4:14.00 which in 2011 was an NCAA Division II national record set by Hurrell-Zitelman.
Kyselova then swam the 1,650-freestyle and touched in 16:43.22 which was second at the CCSA meet. Not done just yet, she swam third on the Cardinals’ 200-medley relay team which posted a 1:45.58 for fourth place.
Kyselova is a freshman from Kiev, Ukraine.
