The NCAA women's swimming and diving championships began yesterday with preliminary and final heats in six events.

The highlight of yesterday's competition was the 200-meter freestyle relay team from the University of Georgia, which swam a time of 1:38.52 to break the world record.

Penn State played a minimal part in the first day of competition, which included some of the Nittany Lions' weaker events.

Freshman Margy Keefe placed 16th in the preliminaries of the 400-meter freestyle, grabbing Penn State's highest individual finish of the day, with teammates Megan Palera and Sally Anderson placing 34th and 48th in the event, respectively.

The 400-meter medley relay team placed fourth in the afternoon preliminaries, with Courney Stanchock taking over the breaststroke leg of the event usually manned by Kristen Woodring.

At press time, the 400-medley final had yet to be completed and Penn State swimming coach Bill Dorenkott was not available for comment on the situation.