She did it again. Incarnate Word's Casey Hurrell for the second consecutive night captured a national title at the NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships being held in San Antonio.

 

Hurrell-Zitelman whipped the field by two seconds in winning the women's 400-individual medley event. In doing so she established a new meet mark with a time of 4:14.00.

 

“I was so nervous,” Hurrell-Zitelman said afterwards. “I didn't know what would happen. I tried to stay even in the fly because I knew the San Diego girl (University of California at San Diego's Alexandra Henley) was good in the backstroke.”

 

One night earlier Hurrell-Zitelman became Incarnate Word's first-ever individual national champion on the women's side by capturing the 1,000-freestyle.

 

“My goggles fogged up,” she said after the medley race. “But I just told myself to keep on. I don't care about getting first place; I just always want to be in the top five.”

 

And for the second night she did just that.

 

In that medley event teammate and best pal Paulina Alexander swam to a ninth place finish in 4:25.51. That spot earned the Cardinals another nine points for the team total. At the end of night two UIW was in seventh place with 106 points. The leader was defending champion Drury of Missouri with 267.

 

Another point-producer for Incarnate Word was Joy Turner who touched eighth in the 100-butterfly. Her 56.08, a UIW school record, earned 11 tallies.

 

Being conducted at San Antonio's Palo Alto Natatorium, the meet continues Friday with preliminaries at 10:30 a.m. and finals at 6 p.m. The championships conclude with two sessions on Saturday.