March 22, 2013

INDIANAPOLIS — South Carolina junior Amanda Rutqvist swam her first event at the 2013 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships on Friday, finishing 31st in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:01.01.

Rutqvist, who entered the event as the No. 40 seed, improved two spots from last year’s 33rd-place finish. Her time is also a career-best NCAA Championships time.

“I was pleased with Amanda’s 100 breaststroke this morning,” South Carolina head coach McGee Moody said. “She knows exactly what she needs to do for her 200 breaststroke tomorrow, which is her best event. We are looking for a great swim out of her with hopes of getting another All-America honor.”

A native of Gothenburg, Sweden, Rutqvist will close out the championships on Saturday with her best event, the 200 breaststroke. Rutqvist is a two-time All-American in the event as she finished fifth in 2011 with a school-record time of 2:07.86 and placed 11th at last year’s championships. She enters this year’s preliminary as the No. 20 seed with a time of 2:09.97.

Saturday’s preliminaries are scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Live results will be available here.