EAST MEADOW, NY, February 20. THE University of Notre Dame women\u2019s swimming and diving team won its ninth consecutive title Saturday evening at the BIG EAST Championships in the Nassau County Aquatic Center, according to Irish reports. <\/p>\n
The Irish ended up winning 11 of the 20 events in the meet \u2013 including four on the final day \u2013 to score 804 points and finish 191 ahead of runner-up Pittsburgh. <\/p>\n
Notre Dame claimed three of the four major awards, as Bailey Weathers was tabbed BIG EAST Swimming Coach of the Year for the sixth time in 10 years, Caiming Xie was named the league\u2019s Diving Coach of the Year, and fifth-year senior Meghan Perry-Eaton (Brandon, Fla.\/Bloomingdale H.S.) was the BIG EAST Championships Most Outstanding Diver for the third consecutive year.<\/p>\n
The final session saw the Irish finish first in four of seven events en route to posting its second-highest point total ever, behind only an 829.5-point effort in 2000. Notre Dame claimed a total of 11 first-place finishes in the meet, its second-highest victory sum ever. <\/p>\n
The Panthers, who posted their best finish in the meet since 1991, ended with 613 points, while Rutgers slipped to third with 545 points after being the runner-up in each of the last three years.<\/p>\n
Notre Dame\u2019s final-day victories came from Perry-Eaton in three-meter diving, junior Christel Bouvron (Singapore, Singapore\/Raffles Girls\u2019 Secondary School) in the 200 butterfly, sophomore Jessica Stephens in the 200 breaststroke, and the team of freshman Caroline Johnson (Springfield, Mo.\/Glendale H.S.) and sophomores Ellen Johnson (Toledo, Ohio\/Notre Dame Academy), Katie Carroll (Toledo, Ohio\/Notre Dame Academy), and Rebecca Grove (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.\/Yorktown H.S.) in the 400 freestyle relay.<\/p>\n
Perry-Eaton concluded a BIG EAST diving career that ranks among the best in conference history. She became just the second student-athlete ever to be named the league\u2019s Most Outstanding Diver three times, joining Miami\u2019s Jenny Keim (1999-2001). Perry-Eaton\u2019s five conference championships (1-meter in 2003, \u201904, and \u201905; 3-meter in \u201904 and \u201905) also match a BIG EAST record, originally set by Tricia Ney of Pittsburgh (1985-88) and duplicated by Keim. <\/p>\n
Rookie Tara Hyer (Tampa, Fla.\/Academy of the Holy Names) finished second in the three-meter event with a score of 431.25 that also extended her season, qualifying her for the NCAA Zone C Diving Championships, slated for March 11-12 at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. Hyer became just the third Irish diver ever to be named all-BIG EAST, joining a pair of All-Americans: Perry-Eaton and Heather Mattingly (\u201902). She finished seven points ahead of another freshman, Megan McCandless of Pittsburgh, and improved three spots from her fifth-place finish in prelims. Hyer later competed in the platform diving competition (an exhibition event) and finished first with a four-dive score of 146.25.<\/p>\n
Bouvron won the 200 butterfly to complete her BIG EAST sweep of the stroke. She took first with a career-best time of 2:00.07 that was 1.76 seconds ahead of runner-up Kristina Lennox of Villanova. Bouvron also became the first swimmer to defeat Carroll in an individual event at the BIG EAST Championships. The Irish sophomore was foiled in her attempt for a sixth individual title in as many tries, ending up third with a time of 2:02.25. <\/p>\n
After being second in the 200 individual medley and third in the 100 butterfly for the second year in a row, Stephens finally claimed her first career individual BIG EAST title, winning the 200 breaststroke by 2.54 seconds over runner-up Katie Maaske of Syracuse. The Irish sophomore posted a career-best time of 2:16.45 that is an NCAA \u201cB\u201d cut. Senior co-captain Georgia Healey (New York, N.Y.\/Trinity School) finished fourth in her final collegiate race, posting a time of 2:20.36, while Notre Dame\u2019s other captain, Kelli Barton (Scottsdale, Ariz.\/Chaparral H.S.) was eighth in 2:24.24. <\/p>\n
Notre Dame concluded the meet with a victory by over two seconds in the 400 free relay. The Irish turned in the third-fastest mark in school history, a 3:22.03 that was good enough for an NCAA B cut and had been bettered by just eight Division I schools prior to this week. The win gave Carroll her sixth BIG EAST title in seven events in the meet, bringing her career total to 10, which already stands as the fourth-highest sum in Notre Dame history. The victory completed a performance that reestablished Notre Dame as the dominant relay squad in the BIG EAST, as the Irish were first in four of five relays in the meet. Traditionally a power in relays, the Irish had won just one in 2004.<\/p>\n
Grove and Caroline Johnson both posted career bests and NCAA \u201cB\u201d cuts in the 100 free. The sophomore led the way with a third-place time of 51.13 that established her as the fourth-fastest Irish swimmer ever in the race, while Johnson\u2019s 51.15 (fifth place, .01 seconds behind fourth and .02 behind Grove) made her the fifth-quickest in ND history. Irish freshman Katie Guida (Alexandria, Va.\/Georgetown Visitation Prep School) finished 14th in a time of 52.31.<\/p>\n
In the 200 backstroke, sophomore Ann Barton (Scottsdale, Ariz.\/Desert Mountain H.S.) led the Irish by finishing fourth with a time of 2:02.14. Senior Kristen Peterson (Wichita, Kan.\/Bishop Carroll H.S.) took sixth with a time of 2:03.15, while Ellen Johnson was seventh in 2:03.92. Sophomore Kiley Gooch (Carmel, Ind.\/Carmel H.S.) finished 14th in 2:08.13, while freshman Morgan Bullock (Stamford, Conn.\/Westbury H.S.) was 15th in 2:08.69.<\/p>\n
A handful of Notre Dame swimmers will return to action next weekend, at the Boiler-Make-It Invitational, scheduled for Feb. 26-27 at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.<\/p>\n
See below a chart of notable performances at the 2005 BIG EAST Championships:
\nNCAA A Cut <\/p>\n
Katie Carroll \u2013 400 IM (4:15.55)<\/p>\n
NCAA B Cuts
\nChristel Bouvron \u2013 100 fly (55.19 & 54.75), 200 fly (2:01.46 & 2:00.07) Katie Carroll \u2013 200 IM (2:02.15 & 2:01.35), 400 IM (4:16.85), 200 fly
\n (2:01.61)
\nRebecca Grove \u2013 100 free (51.13) Caroline Johnson \u2013 50 free (23.45), 100
\n back (55.52), 100 free (51.15)
\nEllen Johnson \u2013 500 free (4:50.29 & 4:49.83), 200 free (1:49.55 &
\n 1:49.20)
\nJessica Stephens \u2013 200 IM (2:03.01 & 2:02.36), 200 breast (2:17.02 &
\n 2:16.45)
\n200 free relay (Katie Guida, Caroline Johnson, Katie Carroll, Rebecca Grove) \u20131:32.94
\n400 free relay (Caroline Johnson, Ellen Johnson, Katie Carroll, Rebecca Grove) \u2013 3:22.03
\n800 free relay (Caroline Johnson, Ellen Johnson, Katie Carroll, Rebecca Grove) \u20137:16.95<\/p>\n
BIG EAST Titles
\n200 breaststroke \u2013 Jessica Stephens
\n100 butterfly \u2013 Christel Bouvron
\n200 butterfly \u2013 Christel Bouvron
\n200 individual medley \u2013 Katie Carroll
\n400 individual medley \u2013 Katie Carroll
\n1-meter diving \u2013 Meghan Perry-Eaton
\n3-meter diving \u2013 Meghan Perry-Eaton
\n400 medley relay (Caroline Johnson, Jessica Stephens, Christel Bouvron, Katie
\nCarroll)
\n200 free relay (Katie Guida, Caroline Johnson, Katie Carroll, Rebecca Grove)
\n400 free relay (Caroline Johnson, Ellen Johnson, Katie Carroll, Rebecca Grove)
\n800 free relay (Caroline Johnson, Ellen Johnson, Katie Carroll, Rebecca Grove)<\/p>\n
Notre Dame Records
\nEllen Johnson \u2013 200 freestyle (1:49.20)
\n800 free relay (Caroline Johnson, Ellen Johnson, Katie Carroll, Rebecca Grove) \u2013
\n 7:16.95<\/p>\n
BIG EAST Championships Record
\nMeghan Perry-Eaton \u2013 3-meter diving (555.20)<\/p>\n
All-BIG EAST
\n7 \u2013 Katie Carroll: 800 free relay, 200 free relay, 200 IM, 400 IM, 400 medley
\n relay, 200 fly, 400 free relay
\n6 \u2013 Caroline Johnson: 800 free relay, 200 free relay, 50 free, 100 back, 400
\n medley relay, 400 free relay
\n5 \u2013 Rebecca Grove: 800 free relay, 200 medley relay, 200 free relay, 100 free,
\n 400 free relay
\n5 \u2013 Jessica Stephens: 200 medley relay, 200 IM, 100 fly, 400 medley relay, 200
\n breast
\n4 \u2013Christel Bouvron: 200 medley relay, 100 fly, 400 medley relay, 200 fly
\n4 \u2013 Ellen Johnson: 800 free relay, 500 free, 200 free, 400 free relay
\n2 \u2013 Meghan Perry-Eaton: 1-meter diving, 3-meter diving
\n1 \u2013 Katie Guida: 200 free relay
\n1 \u2013 Tara Hyer: 3-meter diving
\n1 \u2013 Kristen Peterson: 200 medley relay<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
EAST MEADOW, NY, February 20. THE University of Notre Dame women\u2019s swimming and diving team won its ninth consecutive title Saturday evening at the BIG EAST Championships in the Nassau<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n