Feb. 16, 2005
EAST MEADOW, N.Y. – The University of Notre Dame women’s swimming and diving team opened up the 2005 BIG EAST Championships by setting a school record en route to a first-place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay Wednesday evening in the Nassau County Aquatic Center. The team of freshman Caroline Johnson (Springfield, Mo./Glendale H.S.) and sophomores Ellen Johnson (Toledo, Ohio/Notre Dame Academy), Katie Carroll (Toledo, Ohio/Notre Dame Academy), and Rebecca Grove (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Yorktown H.S.) finished with a time of 7:16.95 that was more than three seconds quicker than the previous Irish record. After two of 20 events, Notre Dame – in pursuit of its ninth consecutive conference title – is tied with Pittsburgh for first place with 72 points, while Rutgers, runner-up in the last three years, is third with 68 points.
The BIG EAST Championships debuted a new format on Wednesday, adding a fourth day to the meet, one which consisted of two men’s and two women’s relays, as well as a men’s diving event. The first race was the 800 free relay, and Notre Dame easily claimed a victory, with Rutgers taking second in a time of 7:20.08. The Irish bettered the previous school record of 7:20.12, set by Ellen Johnson, Carroll, Lisa Garcia, and current sophomore Ann Barton (Scottsdale, Ariz./Desert Mountain H.S.) at last year’s BIG EAST meet. The record prior to that was 7:22.17, meaning Notre Dame has cut more than five seconds off its University record in the race of the past two seasons. Wednesday’s time was a season best by nearly 16 seconds.
The Irish won the 800 free relay at the BIG EAST Championships for the first time since 2000 and fourth time overall. They just missed the meet record, coming up .52 seconds off the time of 7:16.43 turned in by Rutgers in 2003. Notre Dame’s time is an NCAA “B” cut – the first relay B cut for the Irish in 2004-05 – meaning the Irish will be under consideration for a bid to the NCAA Championships, slated for March 17-19 at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. Coming into this week, just five Division I schools had gone quicker than 7:16.95 this season, and the top 13 relay times at the end of the year will earn invitations to the NCAA meet. If the Irish qualify four swimmers to the national championships in individual events, they also will be able to swim any relays in which they have posted B cuts.
Caroline Johnson led off the relay with a collegiate-best time (by nearly three seconds) of 1:49.96 in her 200-yard leg. It was just the fourth time in Notre Dame history that an Irish swimmer broke the 1:50.00 barrier in the 200 free, making Johnson the third-fastest ND competitor ever in the event.
The BIG EAST title was the fifth already in Carroll’s young career, making her the 11th Irish swimmer ever to win five or more championships in the meet. Grove claimed her second conference title, while both Johnsons were first-time victors, bringing the all-time total of different student-athletes to win BIG EAST event championships to 32 in the 10 years since Notre Dame joined the conference.
In the other opening-night race, Notre Dame’s squad of senior Kristen Peterson (Wichita, Kan./Bishop Carroll H.S.), sophomore Jessica Stephens (Bloomsburg, Pa./Bloomsburg H.S.), junior Christel Bouvron (Singapore, Singapore/Raffles Girls’ Secondary School), and Grove took third place in the 200 medley relay with a team season-best time of 1:45.21. Pittsburgh won the race for the second year in a row, while Rutgers was second. The Irish moved up one position from a fourth-place finish at last year’s meet in the event.
The BIG EAST Championships will continue on Thursday, with five events: 500 free, 200 IM, 50 free, 1-meter diving, and 200 freestyle relay (evening only). The preliminaries will begin at 10:30 a.m. (EST), and the finals will commence at 6 p.m.