Notre Dame's Blue and Gold squads sit in the third- and fourth-place spots, respectively, through one day of Washington State's Debbie Pipher Memorial Invitational.

Irish Strong In Debbie Pipher Memorial Opening Day

Oct. 24, 2008

Final Stats

PULLMAN, Wash. – With a pair of individual wins and no finish lower than second place in each of Friday evening’s eight events, the Notre Dame women’s swimming team posted respective team scores of 153 (Blue) and 149 (Gold) at Washington State’s Debbie Pipher Memorial Invitational. The Irish split into two teams to help balance the field consisting of the host Cougars (205), Ohio (154), Idaho (118) and Fresno State (95) at Gibb Pool.

The Irish continue the meet Saturday at noon (PT).

Finding a rhythm out of fall break training did not appear to be a problem for several Irish swimmers on day one of the event. Amywren Miller established a pool and meet record in the 50 Free (23.16), only to be bested by Washington State’s Rugile Mileisyte’s and her 23.15. Mileisyte also bettered the school record previously set by Taryn Ternent (23.26) in 2001, while the pool record was set by Nevada’s Jin Sun (23.23) in 2000. Delia Cronin (24.70) was fourth in the event.

Midway through the meet Lauren Parisi was the first to put a hand on the wall in the 100 Back (57.01) followed by Samantha Maxwell’s 1:03.35 effort which was good for first in the 100 Breast. Both swims were meet records.

Notre Dame’s `Blue’ 400 Medley Relay team of Colleen Fotsch, Maxwell, Kellyn Kuhlke and Miller finished second in 3:52.53.

The freshman duo of Amy Prestinario (4:30.37) and Emily Barton (4:34.07) took the second and third sports in the 400 IM while Casey Wagner claimed silver honors in the 200 Free (1:54.10).

Katie Casey (56.67) set a meet record in the 100 Fly only to be outdone by Washington State’s Talor Whitaker (56.45).

Wagner, Barton, Parisi and Casey represented the `Gold’ squad in the 800 Free Relay (7:43.84) to cap off the evening with a second-place showing. The `Blue’ team’s entry of Prestinario, Lauren Sylvester, Kuhlke and Christa Riggins tagged in with a mark of 7:52.05 for fourth.

–ND–