NC State swimmers junior Hannah Moore and senior Rachel Muller competed in the AT&T Winter National Championships in Atlanta this week, with Moore earning a second-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke.

The silver medal was Moore’s first individual medal at Winter Nationals, and capped off a very successful week for her. She had top-six finishes in all three of her events at the meet. Muller also competed in three events, with one top-ten finish.

Moore got off to a hot start at the meet, finishing sixth in the 200-yard individual medley final. Her time of 1:58.65 was just over five seconds off of the winner Melanie Margalis, who finished fourth in the same event this summer at the Olympics. Moore got into the final after posting the sixth-fastest prelim time. She finished fourth in her own heat, which was by far the fastest and most competitive of all the prelims as the four quickest swimmers were separated by under three seconds.

For Muller, her first event was not as promising as Moore’s. In the 500-yard freestyle, Muller finished sixth in the first consolation race after failing to qualify for the final in prelims. She placed fourth in her prelim heat, and 10th overall, with a time of 4:48.84. Her time in the consolation race was 4:49.58.

Both of these times for Muller were significantly slower than her 4:39.11 that qualified her for the event at Winter Nationals. Her qualifying time was the second-fastest of all the participants, and would have won both the prelim heats and the final at this week’s meet had she been able to reciprocate it.

Moore followed up her great start with an even better performance in the 200-yard freestyle. She finished second in her prelim with a time of 1:46.43, before taking fifth in the final. Her final time of 1:46.22 was just under three seconds behind Margalis, who won the event.

Moore’s performance in the event was particularly impressive considering her qualifying time of 2:00.80 was just 20th best entering the meet. She improved on her qualifying time by over 13 seconds in both of her races, and outperformed 15 swimmers that had better times than her coming in.

Muller’s 200-yard freestyle was opposite that of Moore, as she had the top qualifying time coming into the meet but failed to make the final at Winter Nationals. She finished sixth in the first consolation race with a time of 1:48.52 after having the 13th-fastest prelim time with a 1:48.40. Both of these times were significantly slower than her 1:44.61 qualifying time.

Muller ended her meet with a stronger performance, coming in the 1650-yard freestyle. She finished 10th overall, and raced in the fastest of the three final heats. Her time of 16:25.98 was slower than her qualifying time, but was under 15 seconds away from a top-five finish.

Moore’s week was capped off in style with the 200-yard backstroke. Her second place time of 1:53.51 was just 1.13 seconds back of winner Bridgette Alexander’s time, and was an incredible 16.53 seconds faster than her own qualifying time. Alexander was able to barely hold off Moore in the final 25 yards of the final, but a silver medal for Moore was a huge success considering she was only the 23rd fastest qualifier.