March 19, 1999

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame 200 medley relay team of Kelly Hecking, Brittany Kline, Elizabeth Barger and Carrie Nixon finished 16th (1:43.36) Friday night to pick up two more team points after the second day of competition at the NCAA Women’s Swimming Championships in Athens, Ga. The Irish now have 14 points overall and were in 26th place following the 100 breaststroke, the fifth of eight events on Friday night and the 11th overall.

Hecking (Rutherford, N.J.) led the Irish off by swimming her backstroke leg (50 yards) in 26.29 and was followed by Kline (Crystal Lake, Ill.), who swam her 50-yard breaststroke in 29.01. Barger then swam the third leg with a 50-yard butterfly time of 25.14, while the Irish relay was anchored by Nixon’s (Ouray, Colo.) mark of 22.88 in the 50 freestyle. Stanford broke five records en route to a first-place time of 1:37.77.

All four Notre Dame swimmers received honorable mention All-America status for advancing to the consolation finals (8th-16th in the prelims). It is the first such award for Kline and the second for Hecking and Barger. Nixon, however, is already a three-time 1999 honorable mention All-American with her 16th in the 50 freestyle and as the anchor leg on Notre Dame’s 11th-place 400 medley relay squad.

The Notre Dame women’s swimming and diving program had never placed a relay in the top 16 prior to the Thursday’s 11th-place finish by the 400 medley relay and Friday’s 16th-place finish by the 200 medley team.

The Irish wrap up competition tomorrow with the 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, 400 freestyle relay and the 1,650 freestyle.

1999 NCAA Women’s NCAA Championships
Day Two – – Finals

200 Medley Relay

 1. Stanford - 1:37.77 (American, U.S. Open, NCAA, pool and meet record) 2. Georgia - 1:38.66 3. California - 1:39.76 4. SMU - 1:39.88 5. Virginia - 1:40.27 6. Auburn - 1:40.93 7. USC - 1:41.26
DQ - Arizona 

Consolation Finals

 9. Northwestern - 1:40.7410. UCLA - 1:40.9811. Michigan - 1:41.5312. Texas - 1:42.2013. Nebraska - 1:42.2814. Nevada - 1:43.0115. Minnesota - 1:43.1016. NOTRE DAME - 1:43.36