Nov. 22, 2009
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Kim Holden and Katie Casey each recorded NCAA B-cut performances Sunday at Indiana’s Cousilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center on the final day of the Hoosierland Invitational, as the Notre Dame women’s swimming and diving team won four events to wrap up the meet.
The Irish will have to wait until Jan. 9 for their next dual meet, a home affair with Northwestern at the Rolfs Aquatic Center. The program will head to Hawaii after Christmas for its annual winter training trip.
“It’s always a good thing when the team performs their best during the final session of a meet like this,” Irish head coach Brian Barnes said. “That’s an indication of the heart this team has, and they showed it from start to finish. The team’s confidence keeps growing, and they’re starting to click.
“We’re going to use these next few weeks to get better. This is when we’re going to continue to improve and become a better team.”
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1,650 Freestyle: Gracie Fredlake turned in the top Irish performance in the endurance event and took home the third-place medal in 16:59.07 … Jaime Malandra came in fifth with her time of 17:10.87 to complete a strong showing for the freshman distance swimmers.
200 Backstroke: Holden blazed to first place in an NCAA B-cut qualifying time as she stormed the field in 1:57.98 to win by nearly four seconds … Megan Farrell swam to a fifth place finish in 2:04.69.
100 Freestyle: Amywren Miller led the charge of an Irish dominated championship final heat … she swam to gold in a swift time of 50.27 … Delia Cronin (51.30) and Farrell (51.86) helped complete the 1-2-3 sweep for the Irish … Kellyn Kuhlke (52.02), Zeina Shanata (52.28) and Lauren Scott (53.15) placed fifth through seventh place, respectively.
200 Breaststroke: Samantha Maxwell took charge of the competition as she dominated the race to take first-place honors for the Irish in the distance breaststroke … her time of 2:17.12 bested the second place finisher by a solid two seconds … Ashlee Edgell stopped the clock at 2:21.83 for fifth-place honors.
200 Butterfly: Fesenko of Indiana came away with the victory, but Casey turned in a strong performance of 1:59.46 to take the silver in the race … Casey’s time was also an NCAA B-cut … Kuhlke (2:05.04), Emily Barton (2:09.58), Scott (2:10.17) and Shanata (2:10.19) finished in the top eight spots.
400 Freestyle Relay: The squad of Holden, Farrell, Cronin and Miller finished out the meet for the Irish in fine fashion, taking gold medal honors in a strong time of 3:25.76 … Shanata, Kuhlke, Fredlake and Meg Reynolds teamed together to help round out the medal podium for third with a time of 3:31.36.
1-meter: Natalie Stitt (276.05) was fifth, Heidi Grossman (275.85) was sixth and Jenny Chiang (261.20) was eighth.
3-meter: Chiang posted a career-high 335.55 for third place … Grossman (317.60) and Stitt (312.50) also recorded season-highs … the meet’s diving field featured Olympian Christina Loukas and several 2009 NCAA finalists … Notre Dame qualified each of its three divers for the NCAA Zone meet this spring.
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