Feb. 27, 2005
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Eight members of the Notre Dame women’s swimming and diving team completed action Sunday in the Boiler-Make-It Invitational, a two-day meet that took place in the Boilermaker Aquatic Center on the campus of Purdue University. Among the highlights of the weekend for the Irish were various season- and career-best times.
Freshman Raine Paulson-Andrews (Montego Bay, Jamaica/Gulliver Prep School [FL]) turned in the best meet of her collegiate career, registering season bests in all three of her main events. She had a season-best mark of 54.01 in the prelims of the 100-yard freestyle before going 53.85 in the finals. Her prelims time of 1:00.50 in the 100 butterfly also was her best during her time at Notre Dame, as was her finals mark of 24.93 in the 50 freestyle.
Sophomore Meghan Linnelli (Canfield, Ohio/Canfield H.S.) also turned in a career best in the 50 free, going 24.46 in prelims before finishing first in finals with a 24.47. Her 100 freestyle time of 52.97, achieved in prelims, was a season best, as well.
Rookie Georgia Steenberge (Granbury, Texas/Granbury H.S.) bettered her previous collegiate-best mile time by more than six seconds, winning the race with a time of 17:51.71. She also swam the 200 free for the first time as a collegian, touching the wall in 2:00.27.
Sophomore Jessica Stephens (Bloomsburg, Pa./Bloomsburg H.S.) bettered her career best in the 100 breaststroke by .04 seconds, going 1:04.93 in preliminary action. It stands as the second-fastest time by any Irish swimmer in the event this season.
Sophomore Grace Galagan (Albuquerque, N.M./Albuquerque Academy) registered a season-best time in the 100 freestyle during prelims, going 56.53.
Though she did not achieve collegiate-best times, freshman Caroline Johnson (Springfield, Mo./Glendale H.S.) turned in three times that continued her team domination in the 100 backstroke, going 56.51 (the seventh-fastest time on the Irish in 2004-05) to lead off the 400 medley relay and then posting times of 56.82 and 57.16 in qualifying first and taking first in the finals of the 100 back. Johnson now owns each of the top 10 fastest times in the race by Irish swimmers this season, as well as 17 of the top 20.
Junior Christel Bouvron (Singapore, Singapore/Raffles Girls’ Secondary School) and sophomore Krissy Archer (Chesapeake, Va./Hickory H.S.) also competed in the Boiler-Make-It Invitational.
All that remains in the 2004-05 season for the Irish is NCAA competition. Three divers – fifth-year senior Meghan Perry-Eaton (Brandon, Fla./Bloomingdale H.S.) and freshmen Tara Hyer (Tampa, Fla./Academy of the Holy Names) and Laura Rings (Gahanna, Ohio/Columbus School for Girls) – have qualified to participate in the NCAA Zone C Diving Championships, slated for March 11-12 in the same Boilermaker Aquatic Center. That competition will send seven student-athletes on to the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, which will be March 17-19 also in the same facility. Notre Dame sophomore swimmer Katie Carroll (Toledo, Ohio/Notre Dame Academy) has earned an automatic invitation to the meet for the second year in a row, while the entire swimming field for the meet will be announced this week.