ATHENS, Ga. — Auburn senior Julie Dwyer placed ninth with an all-around score of 39.350 as an individual at the NCAA Championship hosted by the University of Georgia.

Dwyer placed fourth on vault, becoming a First Team All-American

“We are super proud of Julie,” said Auburn head coach Jeff Thompson. “She had an awesome meet. To finish in the top 10 of the evening session at the National Championship is just amazing.”

Dwyer began competition on bars, scoring 9.825, tying for fourth place. Dwyer moved on to beam and tied for 18th scoring 9.775. She tied for tenth on floor scoring 9.850.

Dwyer ended the night tied for fourth place on vault, scoring 9.900, earning her first nod as a First Team All-American.  Dwyer earned second team honors in 2005 and 2006.

Dwyer is scheduled to compete in the vault finals Saturday at 4 p.m.

Women perform well in first day of Penn Relays
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — The Auburn track and field teams opened competition Thursday during the opening day of the 114th Penn Relays, with just women competing on the first day for the Tigers. The women posted one new regional qualifying mark and advanced two relay teams to finals during Thursday’s competition.

Sophomore Laurel Pritchard earned her first regional qualifying mark in the 5000m, finishing 13th with a time of 16:51.90. Pritchard, who already had a provisional qualifying mark in the 10k this season, beat the regional qualifying standard by one-tenth of a second.

The women’s 4x100m relay team of Shaquela Williams, Joanna Atkins, Cache Armbrister and Amelia Anderson survived a bobble on the final exchange and still managed to win their heat with a time of 44.66, advancing to today’s final by posting the eighth fastest overall time in the prelims.

The women’s 4x400m relay team also advanced to the final, squeaking in to the ninth and final qualifying spot despite what they felt was a sub-par performance. The team of Anderson, Armbrister, DeAngela McDougald and Atkins posted a time of 3:36.81 to reach Saturday’s final.

Bousquet places third in French Olympic Trials
DUNKIRK, France — Former Auburn swimmer Fred Bousquet turned in a third-place performance Thursday night at the French Olympic Trials.

Bousquet, an Olympian for France in 2000 and 2004, recorded a time of 48.71 in the 100m freestyle, finishing behind first-place Alain Bernard (47.82) and Fabien Gilot (48.02).

He entered the finals as the fourth seed after touching in with a time of 48.52 in the semifinals. Bousquet was also fourth after the preliminary and his time of 48.97.

The 100m free is the second event of the week for Bousquet. He swam on the anchor leg on the winning 400m freestyle relay on Monday.

Bousquet returns to action on Saturday in the 50m freestyle and the 100m butterfly.