Dec. 1, 2007
FEDERAL WAY, Wash. – The Notre Dame women’s swimming team remains in third place after day two of the Husky Invitational hosted in Federal Way, Wash., by the University of Washington. The Irish have 611.5 points, sitting behind the Huskies who are in the lead with 899 points and USC which continues to be in the second-place spot with 831 points. Throughout the day, the Notre Dame swimmers were once again able to swim fast times, with many swimming season bests.
With prelims in the morning session, Notre Dame had 23 swimmers qualify for the finals in the evening session. Starting off the second session of the day was the 200 medley relay where the Irish squad of Caroline Johnson (Springfield, MO/Glendale H.S.), Sam Maxwell (Chandler, AZ/Corona del Sol), Keri Masterson (West Hempstead, NY/Sacred Heart Academy) and Amywren Miller (Grosse Pointe Woods, MI/The Peddie School) clocked in at 1:45.07 for the fifth-place spot.
In the 200 free, Christa Riggins (Phoenix, AZ/Sunnyslope H.S.) finished second with a season-best time of 1:48.42, just missing her career best of 1:47.82 set last season at the BIG EAST Championship. Riggins was followed by Megan Farrell (Hopkinton, MA/Hopkinton H.S.) who also finished with a season-best time, clocking in at 1:51.11, a second faster than her previous best for this season (1:52.14). Her time was good enough for eighth place.
After swimming earlier in the 200 medley relay, Maxwell came back to swim in the 100 breast, swimming a season best of 1:02.48, besting her time of 1:03.31 that she recorded just two weeks ago when the Irish last competed at the tri-dual meet at Northwestern. Her time at the Husky Invite was good enough for fifth place.
Johnson continued her dominance in the backstroke events as she finished third with a time of 56.48, besting her previous season-best time of 56.63. She was followed in the event by Lauren Parisi in sixth-place with her season-best performance of 57.00.
To finish out the evening, the Notre Dame relay team of Riggins, Casey Wagner (Glenshaw, PA/Shady Side Academy), Lauren Sylvester (Philadelphia, PA/Germantown Academy) and Farrell competed in the 800 free relay. The squad finished fourth in the race, posting a time of 7:28.05.
The meet will conclude tomorrow (Dec. 1) with prelims at 9:30 a.m. (PT) and the finals at 6 p.m. at the Weyerhaeser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way Washington.
–ND–