JON HELGASON/Arizona Daily Wildcat UA freshman Emily Mason swims at a meet earlier this season at the Hillenbrand Aquatic Center. The Wildcat women's swimming and diving team finished fifth at the NCAA Championships last weekend.

The Arizona women's swimming and diving team came up short at the NCAA Championships over the weekend in Austin, Texas.

The Wildcats, who entered the meet ranked third in the nation, placed fifth in the field of 45 with a final score of 291, nearly 200 points behind national champion Auburn. Rounding out the top five were 2001 champion Georgia, which finished second, followed by Pacific 10 Conference teams Stanford and Southern California.

With its showing in Austin, the Wildcats extend their streak of consecutive top-five NCAA finishes to five.

Wildcat senior freestylist Sarah Tolar successfully defended her title in the 200-yard freestyle, beating Georgia's Stefanie Williams by two-tenths of a second. Tolar also placed third in the 100-yard freestyle and fourth in the 200-yard medley, in addition to swimming the anchor leg on Arizona's first-place 800-yard freestyle relay.

Also standing out for Arizona was junior backstroker Beth Botsford, who placed in the top five in both the 100- and 200-yard backstroke.

"I'm not completely thrilled with my performance, but at the same time I'm not upset with it either," Botsford said. "You can always say you should have done better, but I think it went well."

Sophomore Natalie Coughlin of California set both an NCAA and American record in all three individual events in which she competed, carrying Cal to an eighth-place finish.

Although the Wildcat women were not able to bring home their first NCAA title, they nevertheless were able to bring back an experience to build on - something critical for this young team.

"It's a learning experience," Botsford said. "Your first time there, you've got no idea what to expect. It's just something you have to get used to. They all did really well, and now they know what to expect next year."

For UA freshman Emily Mason, who swam in four different events, the meet was a learning experience.

"It was like nothing I've ever been to before," Mason said. "I had to swim really fast in the morning. I'm used to being able to cruise through the morning prelims and then swimming well in the finals. Here, it was very, very competitive - you had to be ready to go for it all the time."

With a strong recruiting class ahead of them, the Wildcats will likely enter the 2002-2003 as one of the preseason favorites. But for now, they will go into the offseason again as one of the top teams in the country.

"I'm glad to have a good meet," Mason said. "Now, I'm ready to take some time off."