Feb. 18, 2010
PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Junior Amywren Miller won the women’s 50 freestyle Thursday evening at Trees Pool in 22.47, becoming the fastest swimmer ever with the facility’s walls. Miller’s NCAA B-cut performance was the second overall win for Notre Dame at the 2010 BIG EAST Championships as the Irish (296) head into the Friday morning preliminaries in second place Louisville (301).
Miller also won the event as a freshman in 2008 and now has six individual all-BIG EAST citations to her name.
“I was really pleased with our performances today up and down the board,” Irish head coach Brian Barnes said. “With three swimmers in the finals of the 200 individual medley and Samantha Maxwell winning the consolations to Gracie Fredlake earning points in the 500 free, you can tell that many of our swimmers are improving as the meet goes on. And obviously Amywren’s accomplishment speaks for itself, and we’re proud of what she’s done for this program during the meet. We’re hoping to hit our stride and do even better things tomorrow.”
The third day of swimming action will begin Friday (Feb. 19) with preliminary races starting at 10 a.m. (ET). Live stats will be available at UND.com.
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500 Freestyle: Fredlake was seeded seventh heading into the finals after going 4:51.30 in the prelims, an NCAA B-cut … Fredlake then placed fourth overall with a 4:49.82 as West Virginia’s Rachael Burnett set a meet and pool record in 4:41.65 for first-place honors … Morgan Callaway helped complete the 1-2 finish for the Mountaineers with a 4:44.89.
200 Individual Medley: The preliminaries saw Ashlee Edgell finish the course in 2:00.90 for an NCAA B-cut heading into the finals … Edgell (2:00.70) stormed back to take second in the finals, one of three Irish swimmers in the final heat to earn points … Megan Farrell (2:02.79) racked sixth-place points and Emily Barton (2:03.51) was eighth … Louisville’s Leslie Vanwinkle (1:58.13) won the race while breaking the 20-year old pool record set by Texas’ Joan Pennington … Maxwell built her insurmountable lead in the breaststroke portion and won the consolation race with a lifetime-best 2:02.05.
50 Freestyle: Miller (22.47) broke the Trees Pool record established in 1990 to win her first BIG EAST individual title … the NCAA B-cut gave Notre Dame its second win of the meet.
200 Freestyle Relay: Notre Dame took second in 1:31.62 and an NCAA B-cut showing … Amy Prestinario, Lauren Scott and Delia Cronin got things started for the Irish … Miller hugged the line in the final 50-yard burst to give the Irish a comeback effort for the silver … Louisville won the race and set a pool record in 1:30.08.
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