She anchored Team USA in a preliminary heat victory with the overall top prelim time during the women’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay Wednesday morning in Rio de Janeiro, and by that evening, Cochranville native Cierra Runge had a gold medal hanging around her neck.
After that prelim swim, Runge stepped aside and let multi-gold-medal-winning Katie Ledecky anchor the relay for the finals. But as part of the team, Runge received gold when Ledecky came from behind to beat Australia and Canada for the gold medal, according to a report in The Daily Cardinal by Kelly Ward.
Runge is also an NCAA record-holder who is transferring from the University of California-Berkeley to the University of Wisconsin for her redshirt sophomore year this fall.
Her prelim race teammates were Missy Franklin, Melanie Margalis and Allison Schmitt.
Read more about Cierra Runge’s Olympic gold experience in The Daily Cardinal here, and check out previous VISTA Today coverage of her Olympic qualifying performance and early years swimming in Chester County here.
