Women's swimming: Barrington's Jacobsen races to third place in 500 free at NCAAs

Posted March 15, 2018 1:00 am

Daily Herald report

Barrington High School grad Kirsten Jacobsen enjoyed her best-ever finish in a national-level swimming meet on Thursday.

Now a sophomore at Arizona, the seven-time Illinois high school state champion produced a lifetime-best swim in the 500-yard freestyle in the NCAA championships at McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion in Columbus, Ohio.

Jacobsen qualified to the final heat of the event by producing a time of 4:36.07 in the prelims.

In the finals, Jacobsen went nearly a second faster, finishing in 4:35.04. That placed her third, behind only world record holder Katie Ledecky (4:26.57) and Katie Drabot (4:34.86), both Stanford sophomores.

Jacobsen, who won the 500 free all four years at the high school state meet and won the 200 free three times (and once held the state record in that event), has two more individual events at the NCAAs.

She's seeded 18th in the 200 free at 1:44.28 on Friday, and is seeded 19th in the 1,650 free on Saturday.

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