Nov. 18, 2005

The University of Notre Dame women’s swimming and diving team faced its first championship-style meet of the season at the Minnesota Invitational on Friday evening. The Irish began the three-day event with solid performances, including a season-best 1:35.00 effort by the 200 freestyle relay team.

Junior Katie Carroll finished second in the 200 individual medley, freshman Casey Wagner took seventh in the 500 freestyle and sophomore Tara Hyer placed fifth in three-meter diving.

The meet will continue with preliminaries on Saturday at 12 noon, followed by finals at 6:00 p.m. For live results, visit the Minnesota official athletics site at: Live Stats.

Day one recap:

Notre Dame began the finals on Friday evening with a fourth-place finish in the 200 freestyle relay. The team of sophomore Katie Guida, sophomore Caroline Johnson, junior Katie Carroll and junior Rebecca Grove touched in 1:35.00 – a new season-best time for Notre Dame’s top 200 freestyle relay.

The 500 freestyle was next on the meet docket, with Notre Dame’s top finish coming from freshman Casey Wager. Wagner finished seventh in the “A” final with a time of 4:54.33 (after swimming 4:53.28 in the prelims). Classmate Claire Hutchinson finished 15th in the event (4:59.56) while freshman Christa Riggins checked in at 17th in 4:57.71.

In the 200 individual medley, junior Katie Carroll posted her season-best time and seemed to be on her way to her second 200 IM victory of the year, but Wisconsin’s Yi Ting Siow posted an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 1:59.66 to finish first. Carroll placed second in 2:02.69, an NCAA “B” qualifying time. The Irish All-American candidate owns six NCAA “B” cuts this season in the 100 free, 200 free, 200 IM, 400 IM, 100 butterfly and 200 butterfly.

Sophomore Tara Hyer finished a solid fifth in the first diving event of the invitational, posting 286.80 points in three-meter diving (11 dives).

Results of the 50 freestyle will be included in tomorrow’s recap.