Feb. 16, 2006
EAST MEADOW, N.Y. – Thursday morning’s preliminary events at the BIG EAST Swimming and Diving Championships featured several NCAA `B’ cut and personal-best times by the Notre Dame men’s and women’s teams. The Fighting Irish will be well represented in Thursday’s evening finals, especially in the men’s 500-yard freestyle as Notre Dame will occupy four of the eight lanes. Headlining that crew will be sophomore Jay Vanden Berg, who posted the top prelim time with a school-record and NCAA consideration cut of 4:24.09. Junior Katie Carroll registered the top time in the women’s 500-yard free with a career-best mark of 4:49.00. She will be gunning for her sixth individual BIG EAST title this evening in the Nassau County Aquatic Center.
The Notre Dame men enter Thursday’s finals in first place by 12 points over West Virginia (74-62). The Irish women are in second as they trail Rutgers 127-93.
THURSDAY MORNING SESSION RECAP (all races are prelims):
Women’s 500-Yard Freestyle: Three Irish swimmers qualified for the final, all with NCAA `B’ cuts. Katie Carroll and freshman Casey Wagner, who both had consideration times in the event coming into today, placed first and third, respectively, with marks of 4:49.00 and 4:50.52. Both of their times were career-bests. Ellen Johnson also notched an NCAA `B’ time in 4:53.58 to rank seventh overall heading into the final. Freshman Claire Hutchinson will be competing in the consolation final as she placed ninth overall in the prelims in a time of 4:55.01.
Men’s 500-Yard Freestyle: The Irish dominated the prelims by placing four swimmers in this evening’s final. Jay Vanden Berg swam an NCAA `B’ time of 4:24.09 to eclipse the school record of his teammate Ted Brown and place first overall. Freshman Jace Hopper touched the wall in 4:27.88 to place second, while Brown was fifth (4:30.15) and Rob Seery was eighth in a career-best time of 4:30.91.
Notre Dame also placed five more swimmers in the consolation final. Chris Zeches and Brian Freeman just missed the final as they placed ninth and tenth, respectively, with career-best times of 4:30.98 and 4:31.07. Daniel Lutkus (4:32.43), Justin Barber (4:32.52), and Patrick Davis (4:32.92) will also compete in the consolation final.
Women’s 200-Yard IM: Notre Dame will send three athletes into the final with Jessica Stephens leading the way as she clocked a career-best time of 2:02.89 to place second in prelims. Her time was an NCAA `B’ cut, yet she had already established a consideration time earlier this season. Ann Barton placed fourth (2:04.47) and Courtney Choura was seventh (2:04.96) and they will both join Stephens in the final.
Julia Quinn (2:05.94) and Kelly Battle (2:06.80) will compete in the consolation final as they finished 13th and 16th, respectively, in the prelims.
Men’s 200-Yard IM: The Fighting Irish will have two student-athletes in the final as Jamie Lutkus clocked an NCAA `B’ cut and career-best time of 1:49.79 to place second in the prelims and Tim Kegelman, the school record-holder in the event, was sixth with a time of 1:50.86.
Nick Fanslau (1:52.32), Bryan Guarnier (1:52.42) and Alan Carter (1:52.55) will all compete in the consolation final on Thursday evening.
Women’s 50-Yard Freestyle: Junior Rebecca Grove will be the lone representative for the Irish in the final as she placed third overall in the prelims with a career-best and NCAA `B’ cut time of 23.30. She had already established an NCAA consideration time earlier this season.
Three Fighting Irish women will take to the pool in the consolation final. Christa Riggins (23.84), Caroline Johnson (23.88) and Katie Guida (23.93) placed 10th, 12th and 15th in the prelims.
Men’s 50-Yard Freestyle: Junior Louis Cavadini will be the only Fighting Irish swimmer in the final as he was the seventh-best qualifier in a time of 20.68. Tim Randolph placed 12th in the prelims in 20.86 and will swim in tonight’s consolation final.
Thursday night’s competition will begin at 6:00 p.m. and will feature the finals of all the events above along with the 200-yard freestyle relay for both the men and women. Men’s one-meter diving prelims will take place Thursday afternoon with the finals to take place in the evening.
For more information on the 2006 BIG EAST Swimming & Diving Championships, including results from each day’s action, please log onto bigeast.org.
Stay up-to-date on the Notre Dame’s men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams by logging on to und.com or by calling the Notre Dame athletics hotline at (574) 631-3000.
–ND–