improvement
By KATIE McVOY
Associate Sports Editor
The Belles took huge strides between last year's appearance at the Notre Dame Relays and this year's performance. For example, they qualified for all of their events.
Last season, Saint Mary's was disqualified in three relays because of false starts. This season, they only had one false start.
"There was definitely [improvement]," said junior Megan Ramsey. "We only had one false start instead of three, so that's a good improvement."
The Belles finished fifth or higher in nine of the 12 relays among a field of tough Division I competition. Last year's Big East Champion, Notre Dame, won the meet, but Saint Mary's took home its small victories.
"We never have any thoughts that we're going to catch the Notre Dames and Illinois States but we're trying to catch some of the programs," said Belles coach Greg Petcoff. "It's a matter of winning the small little battles but knowing we may not ever win the war."
The first race of the night showed a lot of promise. When freshman Kelly Nelis left the blocks in the 200-yard freestyle relay, the Belles knew they were a stronger team. The Belles relay team finished in third place, behind Notre Dame and Illinois State.
Not bad for a Division III team.
"In the first college meet they definitely did [meet expectations]," Petcoff said. "Last year some of our false starts were freshman aggressiveness. This time around you can see the freshmen held their own. They answered the call."
That was the highest finish of the night for the Belles. Sophomore Molly Maloy, senior Lane Herrington and junior Maureen Palchak joined Nelis on the relay team, coming home with a team time of 1:45.66 seconds, just six seconds away from the first-place finish, and barely two seconds away from a new school record.
"I wasn't expecting that," Petcoff said. "It's not that I had depressed expectations, but they're a little more than two seconds off the team record in the first meet of the season. They swam a very good race."
Saint Mary's showed once again that its strength is freestyle, with its fourth place finish in the 500-yard freestyle relay. Sophomore Ashley Dyer and freshmen Leeann Godfrey and Leah Kimper joined Maloy and Herrington and finished with a time of 5:22.53.
"We knew that our freshmen were talented," Ramsey said. "And it was great to see them in action for the first time and have them live up to expectations."
Saint Mary's took fifth in the 400-yard medley relay, the400-yard butterfly relay, the 800-yard freestyle relay, the 400-yard backstroke, 400-yard breaststroke, 1,000-yard freestyle and 200-yard medley, and sixth in the 400-yard freestyle.
The only race in which the Belles were disqualified was the 400-yard medley. A false start took them and Illinois State out of competition.
The Belles will have nearly a full month off before heading into their regular season. But, according to the team, prospects are looking good.
"The team has already meshed well, there's a lot of good team spirit, we have a lot of people who had good races especially for early in the season," Ramsey said.
All Sports Stories for Monday, October 7, 2002
