Feb. 18, 2009
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Notre Dame women’s swimming and diving team jumped out to an early lead with 80 points coming from two first-place relay finishes in the first day of action at the 2009 BIG EAST Swimming and Diving Championships at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis, Ind. Notre Dame has 80 points to lead the pack, in front of Louisville (68) and third-place West Virginia (62) among the 12-team field.
“We’re off to a pretty good start, but you could tell we were a bit nervous out of the gate,” Irish head coach Brian Barnes said. “Hopefully we can pull that out of them a get a bit more confident. But we came out of the evening with two wins and two records and that’s a good start for us. It’s a seven-session meet and we’ll have to keep our wits about us and keep pushing.”
The meet continues Thursday at 10 a.m. (ET). Live stats and video coverage can be accessed at UND.com. For up-to-the-minute results and scores, sign up for IRISH ALERTS text messaging services at UND.com.
800 Free Relay: West Virginia led by several yards after the 400-yard mark … the Irish got a boost from Lauren Sylvester to put them back on top … Christa Riggins dove in with a sizable lead which she built upon to tap in at 7:13.51 for an NCAA B-cut time … the mark was a school and BIG EAST record.
200 Medley Relay: In a race almost too close to call, Notre Dame emerged as the victors again with a meet and school-record finishing time of 1:39.61 and an NCAA B-cut … Louisville was right on Notre Dame’s tracks and initially appeared to have the race in control before touching second in 1:39.64 … Colleen Fotsch, Samantha Maxwell, Kellyn Kuhlke and Amywren Miller made up the winning team.
–ND–