St. Mary's (Md.) Brie McDowell Notches Another Record

The oldest remaining women’s swimming record fell Saturday afternoon as the St. Mary’s College of Maryland men’s and women’s swim teams hosted their annual Seahawk Invitational, a last chance meet for those swimmers looking to improve their times in order to qualify for the NCAA Division III Men’s & Women’s Swimming Championships in March.
 
In all, nine institutions took part in today’s last chance meet: Cabrini College, Catholic University, Frostburg State University, Goucher College, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Mary Washington, Marymount (Va.) University, Randolph-Macon College, and of course, St. Mary’s.
 
Senior captain Brie McDowell (Doylestown, Pa./Hatboro-Horsham) is now associated with 12 Seahawk records as McDowell set a new mark in the 500 free as she touched the pads in 5:12.27.  Today’s record eclipses what had been the oldest remaining women’s mark of 5:15.07 established in 1998 by Liza Loughran.
 
McDowell, who is coming off a record-setting performance at the 2009 Capital Athletic Conference championships, currently owns eight individual records (200 IM, 400 IM, 100 back, 200 back, 50 free, 100 free, 200 free, and 500 free) while being part of four relay marks (200 free relay, 400 free relay, 200 medley relay, and 400 medley relay).