Feb. 18, 2005
EAST MEADOW, N.Y. – The University of Notre Dame women’s swimming and diving team – in pursuit of its ninth consecutive title – claimed victories in three of five events Thursday evening in the Nassau County Aquatic Center en route to building a 53-point lead in the BIG EAST Championships. It was a night of familiar triumphs for the Irish, as sophomore Katie Carroll (Toledo, Ohio/Notre Dame Academy) won the 200-yard individual medley for the second year in a row, fifth-year senior Meghan Perry-Eaton (Brandon, Fla./Bloomingdale H.S.) triumphed in one-meter diving for the third straight year, and the 200 freestyle relay team claimed the conference title for the fourth consecutive year.
Through seven events (two coming in Wednesday’s opening-night session), Notre Dame has compiled 278 points, while Pittsburgh is second with 225, and Rutgers – runner-up in each of the last three years – is right behind with 219.
The 200 IM was the cornerstone of Notre Dame opening up a lead, after the Irish and Panthers had been tied after the opening night. Following the first event of Thursday evening, Notre Dame found itself in unfamiliar territory, standing in fourth place with 89 points, behind Rutgers (114), Pittsburgh (96), and Villanova (95). The Irish had six swimmers combine to score 77 points in the 200 IM, while Villanova managed just 21, Pittsburgh had nine, and Rutgers scored seven. After the fourth event of the meet, Notre Dame was back on top with a score of 166, while Rutgers was second with 121. The Irish then built their lead during the remainder of the session.
Carroll led a strong Irish contingent in which sophomore Jessica Stephens (Bloomsburg, Pa./Bloomsburg H.S.) took second, sophomore Ann Barton (Scottsdale, Ariz./Desert Mountain H.S.) finished third, and junior Courtney Choura (Bridgeville, Pa./Oakland Catholic H.S.) ended up seventh. Carroll, the Irish record holder, won the event for the second consecutive year, becoming the first Irish student-athlete ever to claim multiple BIG EAST 200 IM titles and the first swimmer from any school to win back-to-back 200 IMs since Miami’s Rhiannon Leier in 1998 and `99. She turned in a season-best time of 2:01.35 that is an NCAA “B” cut and would have earned an invitation to the NCAA Championships last year. It was the sixth-fastest time ever by a Notre Dame swimmer in the race and the fourth-quickest yards mark. Carroll, the meet’s Most Outstanding Swimmer in 2004, remained undefeated in four career individual races in the BIG EAST Championships, becoming the sixth Irish swimmer to capture four titles. Also a member of the victorious 200 free relay, Carroll now boasts seven total (individual and relay) titles, placing her in a fifth-place tie (with 1998 graduate Linda Gallo and 2004 grad Danielle Hulick) on the Irish list of career BIG EAST championships.
Stephens, who is Carroll’s roommate at Notre Dame, was the runner-up with a career-best time of 2:02.26 that was good for an NCAA “B” cut. It marked the best-ever finish in the BIG EAST meet for Stephens, who did not swim the 200 IM a year ago. She was 2.73 seconds quicker than the fastest non-ND swimmer, third-place finisher Annie Kelley of Villanova.
Barton took fourth after being the fifth-place finisher in 2004. She notched a season-best time of 2:05.45. Choura was in the top 10 for the third straight season, taking seventh with a time of 2:07.03 after being 10th in ’04 and seventh as a rookie.
Senior co-captain Georgia Healey (New York, N.Y./Trinity School) led Notre Dame in the consolation final, finishing second for a 10th-place overall result. She edged her career-best mark by .01 seconds, going 2:05.97. Rookie Kelly Battle (Allison Park, Pa./North Allegheny H.S.) finished 11th in the 200 IM with a time of 2:07.08 that was .01 seconds slower than her prelims mark.
Perry-Eaton, the BIG EAST Championships Most Outstanding Diver in 2003 and ’04, became just the second diver ever to claim three straight one-meter titles (also Pittsburgh’s Sunday Lewandowski from 1994-96). As in prelms (in which she bested the field by 72.60 points), she easily established herself as the top performer in the finals, winning with a score of 296.10 that was 64.65 points ahead of runner-up Erica Moreland of Rutgers (231.45). Also as in prelims, she could have foregone her final dive and still won the event by nearly 20 points using only her five-dive score (250.60). Perry-Eaton, who lost by 7.35 points (300.65-293.30) to Michelle Davison of Miami in 2002 in her only conference defeat off the board, remains the only non-Miami diver since 1996 to have claimed a BIG EAST diving title. Just minutes after Carroll earned her fourth individual league title, Perry-Eaton joined that club, making it an eight-member group. Freshman Tara Hyer (Tampa, Fla./Academy of the Holy Names) finished sixth in the event with a score of 221.30 points.
Freshmen Katie Guida (Alexandria, Va./Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School) and Caroline Johnson (Springfield, Mo./Glendale H.S.), Carroll, and sophomore Rebecca Grove (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Yorktown H.S.) concluded the session by winning the 200 free relay with a season-best time of 1:32.94 that was just .18 seconds ahead of Pittsburgh. It was an NCAA “B” cut and allowed the Irish to win the event for the sixth time in the last seven years (West Virginia won in 2001). Grove earned her third BIG EAST title (all on relays), while Johnson grabbed her second in as many days, and Guida became the 33rd different Irish student-athlete to win a conference title since Notre Dame joined the league in 1995-96. Carroll also extended her streak of earning all-BIG EAST honors in every event – both individual and relay – that she enters, improving to 10 for 10 in that endeavor.
In the 50 freestyle, Pittsburgh’s Jordan Wallace notched a victory with a time of 23.30, but Caroline Johnson was right behind her in a career-best time of 23.45 that was good for an NCAA “B” cut, her third this season (also in the 100 back and 200 free). Grove, third in the race last year, finished fourth with a season-best time of 23.59. Guida took second in the consolation final, scoring 10th-place points for a collegiate-best time of 23.78. It completed a day in which she cut .90 seconds off her previous collegiate best.
In the first race of the session, Irish sophomore Ellen Johnson (Toledo, Ohio/Notre Dame Academy) finished second in the 500-yard freestyle with a career-best time of 4:49.83. The top qualifier in an event in which she did not compete a year ago, Johnson was beaten by Kelly Harrigan of Rutgers.
The BIG EAST Championships will continue on Friday, with six more events: 400 IM, 100 butterfly, 200 free, 100 breaststroke, 100 backstroke, and 400 medley relay (evening only). The preliminaries will begin at 10:30 a.m. (EST), and the finals will commence at 6 p.m.