Feb. 16, 2012
PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Notre Dame freshman Emma Reaney qualified for Thursday night’s 200 IM finals in the morning session of day two of the BIG EAST Women’s Swimming Championships at Pittsburgh University’s Trees Pool.
The Lawrence, Kan., native went 1:59.34 in the final prelim of the event to qualify second.
Elsewhere, Gracie Fredlake qualified for the 500 free consolation finals, Amy Prestinario and Hannah Bowen qualified for the 50 free consolation finals and Emily Barton qualified for the 200 IM consolation finals.
Thursday’s evening session begins at 6 p.m. with the consolation finals of the women’s 500 free. As a reminder to fans, a live stream of the entire meet can be found at BIGEAST.org.
Complete Results
500 Free: The Irish had no swimmers qualify in the top eight for Thursday night’s final. However, junior Gracie Fredlake did qualify for the consolation finals with her second-best time of the year (4:53.69). Elsewhere, freshman Bridget Casey placed 18th (4:57.48), junior Jaime Malandra finished 20th (4:58.36), freshman Erin Foley claimed 29th (5:02.86) and fellow freshman Suzanne Bessire took 32nd (5:04.68).
200 IM: Reaney qualified second for the 200 IM finals as she finished first in the final prelim of the event in 1:59.34. The mark would have broken the Notre Dame 200 IM record entering this season, but the Lawrence, Kan., native already took care of that record (1:58.47, 1:57.67) twice at the Ohio State Invitational in December. Elsewhere senior Emily Barton qualified 14th and earned herself a spot in the evening’s consolation finals (2:04.15). She lowered her season-best time by .52 seconds.
Junior Lauren Scott placed just .07 out of a spot in the consolation finals, finishing 17th in 2:04.91. Sophomore Lauren Stauder placed 22nd in 2:06.39, while sophomore Mikelle Masciantonio’s time of 2:05.20 would have placed her 19th, but she was counted as an exhibition swimmer. She smashed her season-best of 2:10.20 by five seconds.
50 Free: Prestinario tied for eighth in the 50 free with Cincinnati’s Helena Pikhartova, as each swam 23.42. The tie resulted in the pair having a swim off to see who would advance to the finals and who would be the top seed in the consolation finals. Despite swimming a season-best time of 23.30, Prestinario was edged out by Pikhartova by .28 seconds. Joining Prestinario in the 50 free consolation finals is Bowen, who placed 11th in 23.49. Elsewhere, sophomore Christen McDonough missed out on the consolation finals by just .11 seconds (23.78), finishing 17th. Masciantonio exhibitioned again in the 50 free, but would have tied for 19th with a season-best time of 23.83.
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