Notre Dame Women Fall To Michigan, Men Defeat Olivet

Irish Fall To Wolverines In Final Regular Season Dual Meet
Six wins including a diving sweep ­were not enough for the Notre Dame women’s swimming and diving team to get over the hump Saturday at Canham Natatorium, as the 25th-ranked Irish fell to Michigan, 141-102, to finish the 2008-09 regular season with a 6-3 dual meet record.

Next on the schedule for Notre Dame is the 2009 BIG EAST Conference Championship meet, which will be held Feb. 18-21 in Indianapolis. The Irish seek their 13th consecutive league title and hope to extend the longest championship-winning streak of any BIG EAST sport.

200 Medley Relay: Coming in second was the tandem of Colleen Fotsch, Samantha Maxwell, Kellyn Kuhlke and Amywren Miller … they touched in 1:43.51.

1,000 Free: Casey Wagner won the event by nearly two seconds (10:08.67) as Claire Hutchinson (10:12.54) was third overall … Lauren Sylvester (10:12.54) was fourth.

200 Free: Notre Dame was led by Christa Riggins (1:51.51), who was third … Amy Prestinario (1:52.90) was fifth.

50 Free: Miller picked up an individual win with a 23.06 … Meg Reynolds was the next Irish swimmer to touch the wall, and her fifth-place showing came in 24.03.

200 Individual Medley: Megan Farrell went 2:04.32 to take first, and teammate Ashlee Edgell (2:06.65) was right behind her in second place.

1-meter Diving: Natalie Stitt claimed the first of her two wins with a 298.27 … Tiffany Robak (253.13) was fourth and Heidi Grossman (252.08) was fifth.

100 Fly: Katie Casey (56.36) was third behind a pair of Wolverines.

100 Free: Miller streaked through in 50.55 for second … Zeina Shanata (53.36) was fifth and Prestinario (53.44) was sixth.

100 Back: Maggie Behrens cut the tape in 57.66, just ahead of fourth-place Lauren Parisi (57.90).

500 Free: The second distance race saw Wagner (5:00.57) finish third … she was followed by Farrell (5:01.08).

3-meter Diving: Stitt broke the 300-point barrier with a 302.77 for first … Grossman (277.65) was fourth overall.

100 Breast: Maxwell racked the win in 1:02.69, nearly three seconds ahead of the next closest finisher … Pat Duret was fourth in 1:07.10.

400 Free Relay: Riggins, Delia Cronin, Behrens and Prestinario teamed for third-place honors in 3:30.50.
Irish Roll Past Olivet, 173-102

Irish Roll Past Olivet, 173-102
The Notre Dame men’s swimming and diving team posted event-best marks in each of Saturday’s 16 showdowns at the Rolfs Aquatic Center, which propelled the Irish past Olivet by a 173-102 margin. Notre Dame (7-6) finishes the 2008-09 regular season with four consecutive dual meet wins after earning a trio of victories at the Shamrock Invitational on Jan. 24.

An unfortunate glitch in the timing system hindered the opportunity to make the meet’s results official and up to standard with NCAA regulations.

“Timing malfunction notwithstanding, this meet was fun,” Irish head coach Tim Welsh said. “We learned a great deal. We set up our entries so that we’d be able to see some alternatives and lineups we hadn’t seen before. It was a very helpful meet for us.

“We appear to be on schedule at this point to achieve our best times at the conference championship meet, and that’s our goal. The things we saw today encouraged us to believe that we’re on the right track. We leave today’s meet more excited about our conference championship potential than we were coming into it.”

The Irish have brought home the BIG EAST Conference team title in 2005, 2006 and most recently in 2008. This year’s meet will be held in Indianapolis from Feb. 18-21.