AUBURN, ALA. – Today was the second day of the women’s 2003 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships at Auburn University. University of Hawai`i swimmers Yan Chen and YingJuan Zhen participated in the 400 IM and 100 Back preliminary events, respectively. Today took the same tone of disappointment for the women, as they both dropped out of today’s competition following the preliminaries.

Chen’s swim in the 400 IM (4:18.82) came just short of the qualifying time of 4:18.44 needed to advance onto the finals. Her finishing time put her in the 23rd slot of the 43 participants. Like yesterday, the top-taker in the event was an Auburn swimmer. Senior Maggie Bowen finished first with her time of 4:07.45.

Zhen’s swim in the 100 Back (56.42) preliminaries placed her in 40th out of 49 participants. The time needed to advance into the 100 Back finals was 55.15. Auburn swimmer Kristy Coventry captured the top slot as she finished the event with a time of 52.89.

The competition resumes tomorrow with the preliminary events starting at 11 a.m. and the finals at 7 p.m. Zhen will be participating in the 200 Back event whereas Chen will compete in the 200 Fly. For a complete listing of today’s and yesterday’s results, logon to www.ncaasports.com/swimming/womens