VOL. 23, NO. 18	MARCH 27, 1998

Cristina Teuscher Record Photo by Eileen Barroso.

ristina Teuscher, CC‘00, became the first Ivy League woman ever to win a national collegiate swimming championship, when she won the 500-yard freestyle event at the NCAAs last week.

  The next day, Teuscher took her second national title when she won the 400-yard individual medley at the University of Minnesota, where the NCAA championships were held Mar. 19 and 20.

  Teuscher, of New Rochelle, swam the medley in 4:05.62.

  In the 500-yard event, she swam the second fastest time in U.S. history (the record is held by former Stanford swimmer and Olympian, Janet Evans) and set a school record for Columbia and a pool record of 4:35.45.

  “I was trying to pace myself and not get too excited,” she said after the race. “Crowds here can get pretty awesome.”

  Teuscher, who won a gold medal in the 800 freestyle relay in the 1996 summer Olympics, said NCAA championships help prepare swimmers for the Olympics: “Crowds like this are what make you or break you in the Olympics. The crowds can really scare you off or get you pumped for a race.”

  Teuscher has been named to the All-Ivy first teams for the 200 and 500 freestyle and the 200 breast stroke.

• In other NCAA news, Columbia fencer Dan Kellner made first team All-America after the Lions finished fourth at the NCAA championships at Notre Dame last weekend.

• Also receiving rewards at the end of the winter season are two Columbia basketball players. The Ivy League coaches voted men’s captain, junior guard Gary Raimondo, to the All-Ivy second team, and selected women’s first-year forward Shawnee Pickney to the All-Ivy rookie team.

• The spring sports season has begun, and this weekend will be busy at Baker Field: On Sat., Mar. 28, the baseball team plays Pennsylvania at noon, and the track team begins a meet at 11:00 A.M. in Wien Stadium. Also at noon on Saturday men’s tennis faces Princeton. And on Sunday at noon, women’s lacrosse takes on Vermont.