Nov. 20, 2009
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Notre Dame women’s swimming and diving team won four of five events Friday at the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center to kick off the Hoosierland Invitational hosted by Indiana. The meet continues Saturday with the preliminary session starting at 6:00 p.m. (ET). The finals will be held at 6:00.
The Irish posted a number of season-best performances across the board in each event.
“We got off to a good start by putting together a season-best swim in the opening relay with a huge output by Amywren Miller, who had a great split for this point in the season,” Irish head coach Brian Barnes said. “The future for our distance events is in good hands with Gracie Fredlake and Jaime Malandra, and Lauren Sylvester is on the road back to recovery after working through an injury as this was her first true meet since the BIG EAST Championships last year. She had great pace today, and it is only going to get better and better.
“Pat Duret had a great race in the 200 IM, and her personal-best really got the team excited. Zeina Shanata dropped five seconds off her lifetime best and Ashlee Edgell went out and owned the event as well. We almost took the top four spots in the 50 free and capped the evening off with a nice relay win.
“This team is still tired, but that’s alright. We’re conducting ourselves in a great way and feeding off each other’s energy. This can turn out to be a great meet for the program.”
The event is not being scored as unattached and independent athletes are competing in the meet.
—
200 Freestyle Relay: The Irish earned first- and third-place honors … the quartet of Lauren Scott, Kellyn Kuhlke, Delia Cronin and Amywren Miller finished first in a time of 1:33.29 … the efforts of Meg Reynolds, Keri Masterson, Gina Mancini and Samantha Maxwell resulted in a third place finish with a time of 1:37.46.
500 Freestyle: Gracie Fredlake and Jaime Malandra finished fourth and fifth, respectively, with times of 4:54.64 and 4:58.70 … Lauren Sylvester placed four in the second heat in 5:05.50.
200 Individual Medley: Ashlee Edgell touched first to claim gold in 2:02.42 … the Irish then claimed the third, fourth and fifth spots with performances from Megan Farrell (2:04.96), Zeina Shanata (2:05.27) and Emily Barton (2:05.74).
50 Freestyle: The Irish placed five swimmers in the final heat … Miller took the win, stopping the clock at 23.12 … Scott (23.72), Kuhlke (23.77), Delia Cronin (23.85) and Reynolds (24.49) finished second, third, fifth and eighth, respectively.
400 Medley Relay: Kim Holden, Maxwell, Kuhlke and Miller finished the night of with a Notre Dame victory in 3:42.19 … Masterson, Lizzy Gormley, Scott and Cronin finished third overall in 3:49.22.
1-meter Diving: Natalie Stitt was fifth, Heidi Grossman was sixth and Jenny Chiang took eighth … final scores were not available.
–ND–