University of Tennessee Athletics
FORMER LADY VOL SWIMMERS HAVE STRONG OUTING AT WORLD CUP
November 29, 2001 | Women's Swimming & Diving
Nov. 29, 2001
LONG ISLAND, N.Y.
Former University of Tennessee swimmers Pam Hanson and Fabiola Molina had strong outings in action Tuesday and Wednesday at the FINA World Cup stop at the Long Island Aquatic Center in East Meadow, N.Y.
Hanson got off to a strong start on Tuesday night with a third-place finish in the 200-meter backstroke. The four-time All-American finished third in the preliminaries with a time of 2:12.33 and then came back for the evening session and clocked 2:10.65 in the finals in her first professional meet. Her third-place finish came against a strong field in which event-winner Natalie Coughlin, a sophomore at Cal, set a world record with a time of 2:03.62.
Also on Tuesday, Hanson finished fifth in the 50m backstroke with a time of 29.18 after finishing ninth in the preliminaries with a clocking of 29.74. On Wednesday, the La Crosse, Wis., native finished 15th in the preliminaries of the 50m butterfly with a time of 29.39 before advancing to the finals of 100m backstroke. Hanson, a Lady Vol from 1998-2001, clocked a time of 1:02.90 to finish seventh overall in the 100m back.
Joining Hanson in New York was former Lady Vol Fabiola Molina, who was representing her home country of Brazil. She finished seventh in the 50m backstroke with a time of 29.36 after a fourth-place mark of 29.30 in the preliminaries. Molina, a 2000 Olympian, finished eighth in the preliminaries of 100m backstroke in a time of 1:03.00, just a tenth of a second behind Hanson. In the finals of the 100m back, Molina would come back to defeat Hanson and take sixth place with a time of 1:02.14, nudging her former teammate by fourth-tenths of a second.
Following the World Cup event, the swimmers will stay at the Long Island Aquatics Center for the U.S. Open, which runs from Nov. 29 through Dec. 2.
