Indianapolis, IN (NSUWolves.com) – For the second time in her career, Northern State senior Hannah Kastigar is the NCAA National Champion in the 400 Individual Medley. The National Championship victory moved Northern State up to 18th in the NCAA overall team standings.
“I felt really strong tonight and it feels great to have been able to race and defend the national champ title,” explained Kastigar. “It was right off my best time. Overall, I’m happy with me performance and that I swam faster than my time [from the National Championships] two years ago.”
The Aberdeen opened her day with a prelim mark of 4:15.06, as the top seed moving into finals. She only improved from their knocking out a school record time of 4:11.15. Kastigar broke free from the field early, defeating her next closest opponent by over six seconds. She was strong in the second split of the final three strokes (back, breast, and free) only improving on her times.
“We were very happy that she was faster than two years ago in this event,” noted head coach Nicole Monanian. “She was very close to her best time which she set back in 2015. This time qualifies her for the senior nationals this summer, where we hope she will make her cuts for the Olympic trials. Overall, we are excited for her and looking forward to this momentum going into the rest of the week.”
Kastigar is now a 6-time NCAA All-American for the Wolves with two events remaining from the NCAA National Championships. She returns to the pool tomorrow in the 200 fly, where she won the National Championship back in 2017. Stay tuned to @nsuwolves_sw on Twitter for up to the minute updates on race start times and finishes.