Georgetown’s Tessa Cieplucha reached the final in the women’s 400-metre individual medley at the World Aquatic Championships in Doha, Qatar Sunday.
Cieplucha turned in the fastest qualifying time, winning the second of three heats with a time of 4:40.80.
In the final, Cieplucha was slightly ahead of her qualifying time after the butterfly, but she wasn’t able to maintain the pace over the final 300m, finishing in 4:43.02. Great Britain’s Freya Colbert won in 4:37.14, a little quicker than Cieplucha’s personal best of 4:37.26 set at the 2021 Olympic trials.
“It kind of stings a bit waiting for the last day and then not really doing as well as you think,” the 25-year-old said. ”I was really happy with the morning and my goal coming into the meet was to make a final, so anything on top of that would be great.”.
Cieplucha won the gold medal in the 400 IM at the 2019 Pan Am Games as well as the world short-course championships in 2021, and finished 14th at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
