Jan. 26, 2002
The University of Notre Dame men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams each won dual meet victories over BIG EAST Conference opponent Villanova at Rolfs Aquatic Center on Saturday afternoon. The men’s team is now 10-3 on the season, while the women improve to 8-0 in 2002.
It was truly a team effort for the men’s team, with seven different swimmers winning races. Jonathan Pierce (Newburgh, Ind.) won the 1650 freestyle with a season-best time of 15:59.35. Michael Flanagan (San Deigo, Calif.) also posted a season-best 4:08.86 in his 400 IM victory, a BIG EAST qualifying time. Other winners for the men included freshman Matt Bertke (Edswood, Ken.) in the 200 freestyle (1:44.28), junior Jason Colettis (Medford, Mass.) in the 100 backstroke (54.13), senior Mike Koss (Hometown, AM) in the 100 breaststroke (58.78), sophomore J.R. Teddy (Spring, Texas) in the 200 butterfly (1:55.35), and junior John Hudson (Alpharetta, Ga.) in the 200 backstroke (1:58.97). Junior Andy Maggio (Cincinatti, Ohio) also took both diving events. The Irish men also won the 200 medley relay to begin the meet.
The Irish women were led by seniors Kelly Hecking (Rutherford, NJ), Carrie Nixon (Ouray, Col.), and sophomore Lisa D’Olier (Houston, Texas), each winning two events in the meet. Hecking took the 100 and 200 backstroke (56.61, 2:04.21) and Nixon took the 50 and the 100 freestyle (23.13, 50.50). D’Olier posted season-best times in her wins in both the 100 and 200 butterfly (56.10, 2:01.86). Senior Allison Lloyd (Fort Wayne, IN) also won the 100 breaststroke (1:04.17). But perhaps the biggest star was sophomore Marie Labosky (Churchville, PA) who swam a career best, university record, NCAA qualifying time (4:14.47) in a neck-in-neck second-place finish to 2000 Olympian Maddy Crippen in the 400 IM. Senior Heather Mattingly (Houston, Tex.) won the one-meter diving and sophomore Meghan Perry-Eaton (Brandon, Fla.) took the three-meter event.
Both teams return to action next week, as the women face Northwestern at home on Thursday, Jan. 31, and the men take on St. Bonaventure on Saturday, Feb. 2.