Oct. 23, 2015
FORT MYERS, Fla. – The University of Notre Dame women’s swimming and diving team spent the week of fall break training in Fort Myers, Florida, culminating in a dual meet with No. 29 Florida Gulf Coast on Friday. The Irish lost to the Eagles, 158-104, but gained valuable experience in the process.
“We don’t ever like to lose, but just because we lost tonight doesn’t mean we didn’t take away anything valuable from the meet,” Irish head coach Mike Litzinger says. “Our training trip this week was two-fold – to get away from campus, and to increase the speed and quality of our training. By doing so, we are in a much better place at this point in the season than our team was at this time last year.”
The Irish put in strong performances in many events, notably taking second in the 200 medley relay (1:42.64), 200 fly (Nicole Smith, 2:02.72) and 200 back (Alice Treuth, 2:00.64). Notre Dame earned three individual first-place finishes, in the 200 free (Ella Moynihan, 1:50.19), 500 free (Moynihan, 4:57.06) and 100 fly (Catherine Galletti, 55.02). Galletti also came in second in the 50 free (23.70).
“This was a good meet for us to compete at; to swim against a ranked team is good experience for us,” states Litzinger. “Florida Gulf Coast is ranked because they’ve already had three dual meets, this was their fourth. They’re in that competitive mindset, and that’s something we’re working towards having. By swimming in meets like this one, and the ones next week against Michigan State, Purdue and Ohio State, those will help us to challenge and push ourselves throughout the remainder of the fall schedule.”
The Irish are next in action on Friday, October 30th, when they host Michigan State at the Rolfs Aquatic Center. The Irish have chosen to participate in a national, head-to-head challenge to raise funds for breast cancer research, and will be selling $15 t-shirts and accepting donations at the meet. All proceeds go to support River Bend Cancer Services of Mishawaka.
–Lizzie Mikes, Media Services Coordinator