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CANTON, Ohio. – Five Lady Raider swimmers will be competing this week from the 2010 Division II Swimming Championships hosted by Lock Haven University from C.T. Branin Natatorium in Canton, Ohio. Shippensburg has posted numerous automatic qualifying performances in events leading up to the championships.

The women's 800-yard freestyle relay of senior Whitney Garner, sophomore Kristen McCandless, freshman Julia Brownrigg and junior Amy Fisher originally qualified during the second day of competition from the 2009 Zippy Invitational, hosted by the University of Akron at the Ocasek Natatorium.

After the leadoff swim that night of Garner (1:53.46), Shippensburg was then able to take the other swimmers best flat starts from meets held earlier in the season. McCandless's swim of 1:55.48 from GMU was combined with Fisher's Saturday-night Akron swim of 1:54.41 and Brownrigg's Saturday morning Akron time of 1:57.45.

Last year, the 200-yard freestyle relay squad of Garner, Nicole Capozzi, Mandi Foltz  and NCAA postgraduate scholarship winner Theresa Simcic earned All-American status with a 13th-place finish from the national championships.

Capozzi has qualified for the 50 and 100-yard freestyles and will replace Brownrigg in the 800 freestyle relay at the national championships after her 200 time from the PSAC meet. The psych sheet time is faster with Capozzi's 200 time. By virtue of its qualification, Shippensburg could also compete in the 200 and 400 freestyle and medley relays.

Individually, Fisher broke a five-year-old school record in the mile during the third and final day of competition from the 2009 Zippy Invitational. Fisher's time of 17:26.39, surpassed head coach Erin Goodhart's previous school record of 17:29.36 that was set on Mar. 10, 2004. She later recorded automatic qualifying times in the 500 and the 1,000.

Brownrigg has also posted an automatic qualifiers in the 100-yard backstroke after a strong time trial performance at the PSAC meet.

A full list of qualifiers is listed below. This is not the official participation list of events for Shippensburg, as decisions on each race will be made on a day-by-day basis.

50 Free
Nicole Capozzi
Whitney Garner

100 Free
Nicole Capozzi
Whitney Garner

200 Free
Amy Fisher
Whitney Garner
Kristen McCandless

500 Free
Amy Fisher
Kristen McCandless

1000 Free
Amy Fisher
Kristen McCandless

1650 Free
Amy Fisher
Kristen McCandless

100 Back
Julia Brownrigg

200 Back
Julia Brownrigg

100 Fly
Amy Fisher

200 IM
Julia Brownrigg
Whitney Garner