America East Championships: Day One

BOSTON, Massachusetts, February 20. AFTER the first day of competition of the 2009 America East Swimming & Diving Championship, the University of Vermont leads the women and Boston University tops the men. A conference record has been broken in each of the five events that have been completed at Boston University’s Fitness & Recreation Center.

The Catamount women’s 800-freestyle relay team of Kate Weaver South Burlington, VT/South Burlington, Molly MacMillan (Doylestown, PA/Central Bucks West), Katie Heenan (Clarendon Hills, IL/Hinsdale Central) and Colleen Clark (Unionville, CT/Farmington) got the championship started by snapping the conference record by more than three seconds, clocking in at 7:22.94. The UMBC men followed suit, with Eric Jones (Gambrills, Md./Arundel), Evan Roseberry (Sinking Spring, Pa./Wilson), Keilan Freeman (Calgary, Alberta, Canada/Argyll Centre) and Justin Bronson (Oshawa, Ontario, Canada/Msgr. Paul Dwyer) swimming the event in 6:39.18, outpacing the previous record by over three seconds.

In the day’s next event, the men’s 1-meter diving, Boston University’s Andre Watson (Hempstead, N.Y./Rutgers University) tallied 670.45 points to top the field and shatter the previous conference record of 540.80.

To end day one, University of New Hampshire’s Amy Perrault Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada/Ecole Catholique Jean Vanier), Allison Nahin (Hartland, Wisc./Arrowhead High School), Sarah Kanellas (Lowell, Mass./Lowell) and Jessie Ellisalcaide (Harpswell, Maine/University of Maine) teamed up in the 200-yard medley relay to earn first place with a time of 1:42.24 and break the previous record of 1:44.68. On the men’s side, host Boston University won the relay with Bryon Kallert (New Milford, N.J./New Milford), Kyle Ernst (Seekonk, Mass./Seekonk), Matthew Rickett (Portland, Maine/Deering) and Jackson Hill (Naperville, Ill./Naperville North) clocking in at 1:29.11, over two seconds faster than the previous record.

The Championship will resume tomorrow with preliminaries beginning at 10 a.m. Finals will begin at 6 p.m. and winners will be crowned in the men and women’s 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard individual medley, 50-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle relay and the women’s 3-meter dive. Diving preliminaries will begin at approximately 2 p.m.

Special thanks to America East for contributing this report.

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