Oct. 7, 2005

Complete Results

The University of Notre Dame men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams began the 2005-06 season with victories in the Dennis Stark Relays Friday night in the Rolfs Aquatic Center. The Irish men claimed the victory with 254 points, winning 10 of 13 events while taking down six meet records. The Irish women were equally dominant, piling up 240 points nabbing 10 victories in 13 events and breaking two meet records.

The Dennis Stark Relays (formerly known as the Notre Dame Relays) were competed for the 41st time for the men and 22nd time for the women on Friday night. Comprised of 11 swimming events and two diving events, it provides the competing teams with a competitive and unique start to their seasons.

Both Irish teams put together impressive runs in the relay-only meet. The Notre Dame women won seven consecutive events in the middle of the meet, breaking two meet records along the way. The men’s team closed the meet with six wins in seven events while setting meet records in four races during the run.

The final team scores:

WOMEN
1. Notre Dame, 240
2. Ball State, 200
3. Illinois State, 154
4. Oakland, 114
5. Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 94
6. Valparaiso, 50
7. Cleveland State, 46
8. Marquette, 26

MEN

1. Notre Dame, 254
2. Ball State, 162
3. Oakland, 140
4. Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 102
5. Valparaiso, 78
6. Cleveland State, 70
7. Marquette, 38

MEET RECAP:

The Irish women began the meet in fine form, winning the 200 free style relay in 1:38.14. Freshman Christa Riggins began the race with a leg of 24.48 in her first collegiate swim. Junior Raine Paulson-Andrews, junior Meghan Linnelli and sophomore Katie Guida finished off the victorious race.

The second event of the evening was a mixed 200-yard freestyle relay, won by the Ball State women’s team in 1:42.04. The Irish women were represented by sophomore Kayla Graham, junior Julia Quinn, sophomore Georgia Steenberge and junior Abby Strange, who finished second in 1:44.94

The men’s team kicked off the evening with its own victory in the second event, taking the 200 freestyle relay in 1:26.73. Senior Tim Randolph, sophomore Eric Swenson, senior Chris Barnes and junior Nick Fanslau comprised the winning squad.

Ball State captured its first event of the meet in the women’s 400 medley relay, touching the wall first in 3:57.57. The Notre Dame team of junior Ellen Johnson, sophomore Katie Hopkins, junior Jessica Stephens and junior Krissy Archer finished third in 4:01.70.

In an additional exhibition 400 medley relay, Notre Dame’s “B” team of sophomore Morgan Bullock, junior Annie Sweeney, junior Kiley Gooch and sophomore Noemie Brand ended up in first place with a time of 4:07.73.

The first meet record of the evening fell in the men’s 400 medley relay. Oakland’s team of Eric Lynn, Zoltan Horvath, Chris Tansel and Chris Sullivan placed first in 3:26.76 – breaking Notre Dame’s record of 3:29.84 from 2003. The Irish finished second in 3:27.71, which was also under the previous meet record (team of senior Doug Bauman – 53.72 lead off backstroke leg — senior Tyler Grenda, junior Ted Brown and junior Louis Cavadini).

The Irish women’s 800 freestyle relay team entered the pool for the next race and smashed the meet record by 10 seconds, touching the wall in 7:32.87 (previous record was 7:51.84). Junior Katie Carroll began the race with a blazing 1:50.89 lead off leg – just one second off the school 200 freestyle record (1:49.20) set last season by current junior Ellen Johnson. Johnson finished off the race, preceded by junior Rebecca Grove and junior Ann Barton.

Yet another record fell in the mixed 800 freestyle relay, as the Irish men’s contingent of senior Brian Guarnier, sophomore Jay Vanden Berg, senior Steve Shomberger and junior Alan Carter finished in 7:03.13 – breaking the 2003 team’s meet record of 7:05.76.

The 800 freestyle relay record lasted for all of eight minutes. The men’s 800 free team of junior Brian Freeman, freshman Jace Hopper, freshman Daniel Lutkus and senior Patrick Davis lowered the meet standard even further, finishing first in 6:59.19.

The record breaking streak ended at three events in the women’s 400 individual medley relay (each swimmer performing a 100 yard IM) by just .41 seconds. The women’s team of junior Jessica Stephens, sophomore Natalie Burke, Carroll and senior Courtney Choura finished in 4:00.68.

In a mixed 400 IM relay that followed, the men’s team of sophomore Andrew MacKay, freshman Daniel Rave, sophomore Graham Parker and senior Tim Randolph thought they had the meet record in 3:36.09, but were disqualified. That enabled the women’s team of sophomore Kelly Battle, Steenberge, Sweeney and Quinn to take home a win in 4:13.32.

The possible record-breaking performance by the disqualified team would not have lasted very long. The DQ time of 3:36.09 was quickly broken by the 400 IM relay team of senior Jamie Lutkus, junior Justin Barber, Freeman and junior Tim Kegelman in 3:35.39.

In the diving well, the Notre Dame men and women combined to win three of the four events. The Irish men swept both the one-meter relay format and the three-meter synchronized diving events. Michael Bulfin and Steve Crowe posted a 224.40 score in three-meter synchronized diving, while the same team combined for a 557.9 score in one-meter diving (both scores added together to make a relay).

Tara Hyer and Lucy Hirt combined for a victory in women’s three-meter synchronized, compiling a score of 196.60. They were bested in one-meter diving, however, by the combination of Ball State’s Katie Boyle and Stephanie Paul with 467.75 points. Hirt and Hyer ended up with a total of 428.15.

One of the more unique events of the evening, the 500 yard crescendo relay, was next on the meet docket. The crescendo relay consists of five freestyle legs of varying length – in the following order 50, 100, 200, 100 and 50.

The women’s team broke the meet record in the first of thee crescendo relays, as the team of Grove, Ellen Johnson, Riggins, Caroline Johnson and Katie Guida touching the wall in 4:32.50 – breaking the 2003 record of 4:34.10.

A record did not fall, but the Irish men’s team also finished in first in the 500 crescendo relay, as freshman Bill Bauman, senior Chris Barnes, sophomore Rob Seery, Daniel Lutkus and Kegelman posted a time of 4:05.61.

The Notre Dame run of victories continued in the women’s 400 butterfly relay. Choura started the Irish off, followed by Riggins, Hutchinson and Wagner, who combined to post a time of 3:56.51 – two seconds off the meet record.

Oakland claimed its second victory of the meet, this time on the men’s side, in the 400 butterfly relay. The Golden Grizzlies’ team of Chris Tansel, Bryon Tansel, Jason Manasseri and Chris Sullivan just out-touched (3:27.65) the Notre Dame team of junior Ted Brown, Cavadini, sophomore Dean Fernandez and senior Bryan Guarnier (3:28.05).

The women’s 400 backstroke relay pushed Notre Dame back to its winning ways, as the team of Brand, Barton, junior Kiley Gooch and Grove took home a victory in 3:56.62.

In a mixed 400 backstroke relay, the Notre Dame men’s team of freshman Mitchell Sherman, junior Justin Barber, junior Brian Freeman and Hopper won a three-team race in 3:33.75.

In the men’s 400 backstroke relay (the 21st event of the evening), yet another meet record was expunged. The Notre Dame team of Shomberger, MacKay, Bill Bauman and Carter just nipped the 2003 record (3:29.41) by finishing in 3:29.22.

The Irish women’s team won its ninth event in nine scored races in the 400 breaststroke relay. The team of Quinn, Stephens, Choura and Burke finished up in 4:30.67, just .06 off the meet record of 4:30.61 set by Notre Dame in 2003.

Yet another meet record fell in the men’s 400 breaststroke – and it was one of the more sought-after records of the evening. The team of Randolph, Swenson, Rave and Kegelman finished in 3:53.87, reclaiming the meet record that was previously held by Western Illinois (3:57.23) since 1993.

The Notre Dame women continued their winning streak in scored events (excluding the mixed races) to seven with a win in the two-swimmer 1,000 yard freestyle relay. Hutchinson started the Irish off with a solid 500, followed by Abby Strang for a total time of 10:19.11.

The men followed up with their own victory in the 1,000 freestyle relay and another meet-record performance. Senior Patrick Davis and Vanden Berg combined for a time of 9:14.28, breaking the 2003 record of 9:22.96. The event was the third consecutive win and third consecutive meet-record performance for the Irish men.

Ball State, who won the women’s 400 medley relay earlier in the meet for the only other women’s victory aside from Notre Dame, broke the Irish event winning streak in the 200 medley relay. The loss was just the second (in swimming events) of the meet for the Notre Dame women.

The men’s winning streak also ended in the 200 medley relay, as Oakland’s team of Eric Lynn, Zoltan Horvath, Chris Tansel and Chris Sullivan won in 1:33.41 – setting their second meet record of the night (Oakland also won the 400 medley relay while reaching a meet record).

The women got back on track in the 400 freestyle relay to end the evening with a victory. The group of Caroline Johnson, Paulson-Andrews, Battle and Guida finished in 3:37.55. Guida turned in a key final leg, passing Ball State in the final 50 yards of the race.

The men also ended the evening with an impressive victory, taking down their sixth meet record of the season. Randolph, Doug Bauman, Carter and Brown touched the wall in 3:07.63, breaking the 2003 team’s time of 3:09.34.