WILLIAMSPORT, Pa.  – Junior Katherine Brown (Glenside, Pa./Abington) is the first Lycoming College women's swimmer to earn an invitation to compete at the NCAA Division III Championships and she will enter the championships seeded amongst the top 20 in the 100-yard breaststroke, the NCAA announced with the complete field on Wednesday evening, Feb. 23.
 
Brown qualified for the championships after posting a 1:03.88 in the 100-yard breaststroke to win the Middle Atlantic Conference Championship. The MAC record time was also the 21^st-best time in the country this year and allows her to enter the NCAA Division III Championships seeded 19^th in the country.
 
The championships begin on Wednesday, March 16 at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis, Ind., with the 100-yard breaststroke taking place on Friday, March 18. Trials for the event are at 10 a.m. ahead of the finals at 6 p.m.
 
She is the first Lycoming swimmer to qualify for the NCAA Championships since Nate DeCapria in 2003 and the first women's swimmer since Denise Zimmerman in 1984.
 
Brown will also get to swim in two other individual events, entering the 50-yard freestyle (24.56) on Wednesday and the 100-yard freestyle (54.43) on Saturday.
 
The MAC's David B. Eavenson Swimmer of the Year, Brown set school records in each of the individual events she swam in at the MAC Championships, winning two and setting the MAC record in the 100-yard breaststroke.
 
Brown started her time at the championships by breaking the school record in the 50-yard freestyle (24.56) to finish fourth on Thursday. She swam once on Friday, helping the 400-yard medley relay team finish ninth with a race-best 1:04.29 split. On Saturday, she dropped a 1:03.88 to win the 100-yard breaststroke by more than three seconds, Lycoming's first MAC title since 2011. She added one more title on Sunday, breaking her third school record while winning the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:23.03.
 
Brown also broke a school record by becoming the first Lycoming athlete to earn six conference player of the week awards in the same season. She broke the 100-yard breaststroke Lamade Gym Natatorium school-record twice this year and the school-record twice as well.