Aug. 7, 2006
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame women’s swimming and diving team had a strong showing from the seven current or future student athletes at last week’s ConocoPhillips Swimming National Championships in Irvine, Calif. Six current Fighting Irish swimmers, along with one incoming freshman participated at the event, which took place Tuesday, Aug. 1 through Saturday, Aug. 5 at the William Woollett, Jr. Aquatic Center.
Rising senior Katie Carroll (Toledo, Ohio/Notre Dame Academy) had a busy week as she placed in four individual events and three team relays. Carroll placed eighth in the finals of the 400-meter individual medley with a mark of 4:46.84. She finished ninth in the finals of the 200-meter individual medley with a mark of 2:16.07. Carroll by virtue of her finishes in the 200 and 400-meter individual medley will compete for the U.S. National Team to-be-named next week. The two teams she will be named to are either the World University Games or the Pan American team. When she is named, she will be only the second Notre Dame women’s swimmer to be named on a U.S National team (Erin Brooks was the first). Carroll also placed 16th in the finals for the 200-meter freestyle (2:02.82) and 14th (2:14.67) and in the preliminaries for the 200-meter butterfly. Further, she was a key member of Club Wolverines `A’ squad that was second in the 800-meter freestyle with a time of 8:09.73. Carroll and her teammates on Wolverine finished fifth in both the 400-meter medley relay (4:15.42) and 400-meter freestyle relay (3:49.62).
Christa Riggins (Phoenix, Ariz./Sunnyslope), a sophomore-to-be and a member of the Arizona Desert Fox, finished sixth in the 800-meter freestyle relay with a time of 8:18.34. She and her Desert Fox teammates were seventh in the 400-meter freestyle relay (3:51.66). Riggins also placed 56th in the preliminaries of the 100-meter freestyle with a mark of 57.69. She also swam a time-trial 200-meter freestyle (2:02.11) mark at the meet in achieving her first 2008 Olympic Trials qualifying time.
In other action around the pool in the preliminaries, rising junior Caroline Johnson (Springfield, Mo./Glendale) was 68th in the 100-meter backstroke and 101st in the 50-meter freestyle, with her times of 1:06.84 and 27.77, respectively. Sophomore-to-be Casey Wagner (Glenshaw, Pa./Shady Slide) placed 20th in the 800-meter freestyle (8:50.94). Rising senior Jessica Stephens (Bloomsburg, Pa./Bloomsburg) was 73rd in 100-meter breaststroke with her time of 1:17.18 and finished 80th in the 200-meter breaststroke, 2:43.58.
Incoming freshman Megan Farrell (Hopkinton, Mass./Hopkinton), swimming for the Bluefish Swimming, was 88th (1:05.33) in the 100-meter butterfly. Farrell and teammates also finished ninth in the 400-meter medley with their mark of 4:18.75.
For more information on the 2006 ConocoPhillips Swimming National Championships, including full results, please log on to www.usaswimming.org/nationals.
–ND–