Feb. 15, 2001
The University of Notre Dame women’s swimming and diving team jumped out to an early lead after day one of the 2001 BIG EAST Swimming and Diving Championships in Long Island, N.Y. The Irish won two events on the day and accrued 184 points to lead the 13-team field. Miami (Fla.), whom the Irish defeated in the dual-meet season, was a close second after the first day with 176 points while Virginia Tech had 159.5. Notre Dame is pursuing its fifth consecutive BIG EAST championship since joining the conference six years ago.
Freshman Marie Labosky (Churchville, Pa.) was the lone individual champion for Notre Dame on day one, but she was spectacular in winning the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:01.87, shattering the Notre Dame school record set by Tanya Williams in 1990. Prior to Labosky’s performance, the 200 IM record was the longest-standing of all current Irish women’s swimming school marks. Labosky’s teammates also swam well in the event as fellow first-year swimmers Lisa Garcia (Denver, Colo.) and Lisa D’Olier (Houston, Texas) finished fourth and eighth respectively and senior Tiffany O’Brien (Redmond, Wash.) was ninth.
Notre Dame also captured the 400 medley relay with the team of juniors Kelly Hecking (Rutherford, N.J.) and Allison Lloyd (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and freshmen D’Olier and Danielle Hulick (Galesburg, Ill.). The triumph marked the eleventh BIG EAST title for Hecking, a two-time All-American, and was the eighth time she had been on a conference-champion relay team.
Sophomore Nicole Kohrt (Granger, Ind.) finished fifth in the 500 freestyle (4:55.68) for Notre Dame and the Irish 200 freestyle-relay team also placed fifth with a time of 1:34.61. Junior All-American Heather Mattingly (Houston, Texas) finished sixth in the three-meter diving competition with 467.00 points.
Full results of day one can be obtained at http://www.bigeast.org/sports/swimming. The 2001 BIG EAST Championships continue Friday with preliminaries at 10:30 a.m. and finals beginning at 6:30 p.m.