Oct. 27, 2007
MINNEAPOLIS – In its second dual-meet competition of the season, the 22nd-ranked Notre Dame women’s swimming and diving team fell to ninth-ranked Minnesota, 199-101, at the Minnesota Aquatic Center at the University of Minnesota on Friday evening. The Irish took four of 16 events.
Junior Laura Rings shined for the Irish, claiming both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving titles. Rings posted winning scores of 270.97 and 279.0, respectively to beat out Alex Barstad of Minnesota. Rings just clipped Barstad in the 1-meter, finishing just .82 points ahead for the victory.
Taking the other two events for Notre Dame was freshman Katie Casey and junior Christa Riggins. Casey took the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:01.09, improving on her NCAA `B’ cut time of 2:02.14 that she swam a week ago against USC. Riggins earned a `B’ cut time in the 200 free clocking in at 1:49.29, bettering her time of 1:50.00 that she swam against the Trojans.
Also making impressive strokes for the Irish were newcomers Lauren Sylvester, Sam Maxwell and Amywren Miller. Each freshman posted second-place finishes against the tough Gopher squad. Sylvester finished second in the 1,000 free with a time of 9:59.47 while Miller clocked in a time of 23.42 in the 50 free for her second-place finish. Maxwell had swam to two second-place finishes, one in the 100 breast with a time of 1:03.40 and the other in the 200 breast clocking in at 2:16.01.
The Irish now have a 0-2 dual-meet record after starting out the season with a win at the Dennis Stark Relays. They will continue a string of competition next Friday when they travel to West Lafayette, Ind., to take on Purdue.
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