After competing in the Gopher-it meet over the weekend in Minnesota — the last chance to improve qualifying times — three Northwestern women’s swimmers are awaiting word on whether they will be invited to the NCAA championships March 20 in Auburn, Ala.

Senior Carmen Cosgrove, freshman Katie Paglini and junior Erica Rose all improved their times in their respective events, but did not succeed in making NCAA “A” times, which ensure a tournament berth.

Cosgrove came the closest to an A time with her 54.53 finish in the 100-yard butterfly. Cosgrove shaved .1 seconds from her fastest time of the season, but she was still .4 seconds shy of an automatic time.

Paglini got her time in the 200 backstroke down to 2:00.21, but was still almost three seconds away from an A time.

Rose, who races in the 1,650 freestyle, could only bring her time down to 16:48 — 19 seconds from an automatic qualifying time.

But going into Sunday’s meet, Rose was realistic about her goals.

“I think she wanted to better it for herself,” Paglini said. “Pretty much all of us weren’t happy with our swims at Big Tens.”

NU finished seventh at the Big Tens, and only two swimmers — Cosgrove and junior Vicky West — finished in the top five in their events.

Coach Jimmy Tierney said he sat West during the last-chance meet because he thinks her provisional time will be fast enough to qualify for an invitation to the championships.

The Cats will learn whether their times will make the cut for the NCAA championships by the end of this week.

Until then, the team is holding light practices.

Both of NU’s divers, senior Kristin Ward and sophomore Ashley Carter, have already qualified for the NCAA Diving Zones which starts March 14, in Oxford, Ohio. The Diving Zones are the national championships for divers.