Oct. 8, 2010
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame women’s swimming and diving team outlasted three visiting squads to win the 2010 Dennis Stark Relays Friday evening at the Rolfs Aquatic Center. Notre Dame earned 200 points while bettering Illinois State (196), Valparaiso (118) and St. Mary’s (112) on the leaderboard.
With Stark – the former head coach of both the Notre Dame men’s and women’s program – looking on from the pool deck, the Irish won 11 of 12 events and fell short of the sweep after a disqualification in the 400 medley relay.
“We’ve worked hard this week – and the last several weeks – and I’m liking the direction and the attitude this team is displaying right now,” Irish head coach Brian Barnes said. “It was good to watch the team compete in a tired state and still be tough. Kim Holden, Lauren Scott, Amywren Miller and Samantha Maxwell swam very tough together. And we’ve got a promising group of young swimmers who did a fine job for us.”
Notre Dame will now travel to Auburn for a double-dual meet along with LSU. The three teams begin action Oct. 22 at 6:00 p.m. (ET).
“We’re going to try to be much better in the next meet than we were tonight,” Barnes said. “When we head off to Southeastern Conference territory at the end of fall break we get to face two top-20 programs in Auburn and LSU. It’s two weeks away, and we’re going to continue to work hard. We’re going to show up down there better suited to compete than we were today. We’re just a bit race rusty.”
—
200 Free Relay: Lauren Scott grabbed the early lead for the Irish … Lauren Parisi extended the lead to a couple yards after her two lengths … Amywren Miller sprinted to a split time of 22.99, finishing off the victory in 1:35.19 … that time was a meet record.
400 Medley Relay: Notre Dame was disqualified in the event … Illinois State took the victory in 4:04.33.
800 Free Relay: Illinois State’s Danielle Schumacher took the early lead over Katie Casey … Gracie Fredlake closed the gap with Illinois State … Jaime Malandra pulled ahead and Lauren Sylvester closed out the victory for the Irish in 7:44.70.
400 Individual Medley Relay: Christen McDonough took the early lead for the B-relay … Samantha Maxwell surged ahead to regain the lead for the A-relay … Scott and Amy Prestinario continued to hold the lead, stopping the clock at 4:03.17.
400 Butterfly Relay: Casey took the early commanding lead for the Irish … Kellyn Kuhlke continued to build the margin … Scott was able to cost to victory in 3:51.78.
400 Backstroke Relay: Parisi got the Irish off to an early lead … Kelly Ryan broke the race open, expanding the lead to three body lengths … Kim Holden closed the race out in 3:51.99 for another Irish gold.
400 Breaststroke Relay: Maxwell shattered the competition in the early going … McDonough and Stauder built the lead to over 25 yards … Gwen Blythe touched the pad in 4:28.68 for the victory.
1,000 Free Relay: Illinois State’s Tori Alland took the early lead over Malandra … Fredlake battled back and passed Schumacher in the waning laps to take the victory in 10:14.60.
200 Medley Relay: Holden sprinted out to an early lead … Maxwell and Scott continued to add cushion to the lead before Miller finished off the race in 1:46.14.
400 Free Relay: Prestinario built an early lead for Notre Dame … Ryan added to the margin while Parisi and Mikelle Masciantonio finished off the evening for the Irish, stopping the clock at 3:34.07.
Diving Relay: Kimmie Lisiak and Heidi Grossman won the event with 274.70 points.
Combo Diving: Another first-place finish went to Grossman and Lisiak after the pair earned 479.05 points.
–ND–