Mar. 22, 1997

Notre Dame Women’s Swimming Finishes 25th at NCAA Championships

INDIANAPOLIS — Notre Dame’s women’s swimming team, with its largest contingent in school history, placed 25th with 19 points at the NCAA women’s swimming championships at the Indiana University Natatorium at IUPUI in Indianapolis. USC won the women’s title with 406 points.

Senior All-American Erin Brooks led the Irish as she placed eighth in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:58.55 to earn All-America honors for the second consecutive year. Brooks placed 10th in the 200 backstroke at the 1996 NCAA championships. Brooks swam 1:58.14 in the preliminaries to place seventh.

Freshmen Alison Newell and Shannon Suddarth each placed 13th in their individual events. Newell swam 2:01.72 in the evening finals to place 13th. She swam the 10th fastest time in the preliminaries with a time of 2:00.53 to break her own school record of 2:00.63 which she set in winning the 200 butterfly at the BIG EAST championships.

Suddarth broke her school record in the 200 breaststroke for the second time on Saturday. In the preliminaries, she placed 15th with her time of 2:16.31 to break her school record of 2:16.76 which she set at the BIG EAST championships. Suddarth then matched this record with her time of 2:15.41 in the finals, avenging her loss to Miami’s Kristine Tellegen in the 200 breaststroke at the BIG EAST championships. Tellegen placed 14th in 2:15.66.