Feb. 13, 2007
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame women’s swimming and diving team (8-1), ranked 19th in the latest release of the College Swimming Coaches Association top 25 rankings, begins pursuit of the BIG EAST Championship this week in East Meadows, N.Y. at the Nassau County Aquatic Center. The Irish are poised to battle with No. 25 Rutgers (who have finished second in the meet to the Irish five times) and the rest of the BIG EAST for the team championship. The Irish have won 10 consecutive BIG EAST titles.
The meet begins Wednesday, Feb. 14 at 2 p.m. with the women’s 800-yard freestyle relay and the 200-yard medley relay. The second day’s events (Thursday, Feb. 15), includes the 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard individual medley, 50-yard freestyle, one-meter diving and 200-yard freestyle relay. The events for the third day (Friday, Feb. 16) are the 200-yard individual medley, 100-yard butterfly, 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard breaststroke, 100-yard backstroke, and the 400-yard medley relay. The meet will conclude on Saturday, Feb. 17 with the 1,650-yard freestyle, 200-yard backstroke, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard breaststroke, 200-yard butterfly, three-meter diving and the 400-yard freestyle relay. Thursday’s, Friday’s and Saturday’s events starts with the preliminaries at 10:00 a.m., followed by the finals at 6 p.m.
Last weekend, the Notre Dame women defeated BIG EAST rival Louisville 154-89. The Irish were victorious in 12 of the 13 events including a pair of individual victories (200-yard butterfly and the 500-yard freestyle) by senior Katie Carroll (Toledo, Ohio/Notre Dame Academy). Carroll has now won 17 individual events this season.
Carroll will look to defend the 400-yard individual crown she has taken home in each of the last two seasons at the championships. In her distinguished career, Carroll has been a BIG EAST Champion 11-times and has been all-BIG EAST 21-times. Carroll’s 21 all-BIG EAST selections is just behind Kelly Hecking’s (class of ’02) 23 and head coach Carrie Nixon’s all-time mark of 24 at Notre Dame.
Fellow senior Julia Quinn (Evanston, Ill./Evanston) will also look to defend her title, which she won last year, in the 200-yard breaststroke. Quinn has four all-BIG EAST selections in her career with the Irish.
Notre Dame will have 13 student-athletes competing that have earned all-BIG EAST accolades a total of 77 times. Overall the Irish contingent of qualifiers totals 26 athletes. Those 26 athletes includes 10 freshmen (Maggie Behrens (Munster, Ind./Munster), Ashlee Edgell (Cincinnati, Ohio/Madeira), Megan Farrell (Hopkinton, Mass./Hopkinton), Mary Grace Godfrey (South Bend, Ind./St. Joseph), Vivian Healy (New York, N.Y./Stuyvesant), Gina Mancini (Falmouth, Maine/Falmouth), Keri Masterson (West Hempstead, N.Y./Sacred Heart Academy), Stacey Nedrud (Melbourne Beach, Fla./Cocoa Beach), Tiffany Robak (Milwaukee, Wis./Pius XI), and Natalie Stitt (Holland, Mich./West Ottawa) who are potentially making their debut at the BIG EAST this season.
For complete results of the meet, log onto bigeast.org. A recap following each day of the meet can be found at und.com.
Here is a complete list of the Fighting Irish competitors and the events they have qualified for in the 2007 BIG EAST Swimming and Diving Championships. Note each person will only be able to compete in a maximum of three individual events. The maximum roster size for BIG EAST is 24 athletes, with only 18 able to earn points at the meet.
NAME (seed)
all distances are in yards
Ann Barton
200 IM (13)
100 Butterfly (3)
100 Back (36)
200 Back (6)
Maggie Behrens
200 IM (31)
100 Back (14)
200 Back (17)
Katie Carroll
500 Free (1)
200 IM (1)
400 IM (1)
200 Butterfly (1)
Ashlee Edgell
200 IM (2)
400 IM (2)
200 Back (11)
Megan Farrell
200 IM (10)
100 Butterfly (12)
200 Free (9)
100 Free (22)
200 Butterfly(10)
Mary Grace Godfrey
50 Free (31)
100 Butterfly (19)
200 Free (14)
100 Free (23)
Rebecca Grove
50 Free (12)
100 Back (15)
200 Back (15)
100 Free (16)
Katie Guida
50 Free (30)
100 Back (47)
100 Free (40)
Vivian Healey
200 IM (41)
100 Butterfly (46)
100 Breast (6)
200 Breast (6)
Lucy Hirt
One-meter diving (11)
Three-meter diving (11)
Katie Hopkins
400 IM (32)
100 Breast (27)
200 Breast (17)
200 Butterfly (24)
Claire Hutchinson
500 Free (4)
400 IM (9)
1,650 Free (1)
Tara Hyer
One-meter diving (12)
Three-meter diving (12)
Caroline Johnson
50 Free (3)
100 Back (1)
100 Free (7)
Ellen Johnson
500 Free (7)
200 Back (21)
Meghan Linnelli
50 Free (40)
200 Free (30)
100 Free (32)
Gina Mancini
50 Free (49)
100 Breast (26)
100 Free (60)
Keri Masterson
100 Butterfly (18)
100 Free (55)
Stacey Nedrud
200 IM (28)
400 IM (18)
100 Back (22)
200 Back (8)
Julia Quinn
200 IM (16)
100 Breast (3)
200 Breast (2)
Christa Riggins
50 Free (11)
200 Free (2)
100 Free (9)
Tiffany Robak
One-meter diving (13)
Three-meter diving (13)
Natalie Stitt
One-meter diving (14)
Three-meter diving (14)
Jessica Stephens
200 IM (7)
100 Butterfly (6)
100 Breast (8)
200 Breast (5)
Abby Strang
500 Free (31)
400 IM (38)
1,650 Free (15)
Casey Wagner
500 Free (2)
200 Free (15)