Womens Swimming: Women's swimming beats Wolverines in last dual meet
By PAT LEONARD
Sports Writer
The womens swimming and diving team ended their dual meet season on Saturday with a nail-biting 153-147 victory over Michigan at Rolfs Aquatic Center. The Irish (9-1-1) edged the Wolverines (3-3) in the meet's final event of the 200 freestyle relay by .33 seconds to pull out the win.
Junior Danielle Hulick, senior Heidi Hendrick, sophomore Katie Eckholt and sophomore Kristen Peterson clocked in at 1:35.03 and gave the Irish a win over their then-No. 19 opponent.
"We've had some pretty close meets with them over the years," said coach Bailey Weathers. "Usually they're better at the freestyle relay. But our girls swam hard and I think our girls probably surprised them a little bit."
Notre Dame won nine events on the day. Hulick is responsible for three of the nine victories. Hulick swam on the difference-making relay team and also won two individual events, the 50 freestyle (23.90) and the 100 backstroke (56.33).
"Danielle has had a great season for us," Weathers said. "She did an awesome job yesterday and she is definitely a team leader for us."
A three-time Big East champion and the Big East 200 freestyle relay record holder, Hulick competed strongly in other events as well, taking second in the 200 medley relay, the 1650 freestyle, and the 200 freestyle events.
Other Irish victors include Hendrick in the 100 freestyle (51.86), Peterson in the 200 backstroke (2:03.42) and junior Lisa Garcia in the 200 butterfly (2:01.03)
Junior Meghan Perry-Eaton won the 1-meter (322.64 points) and 3-meter (307.95) diving competitions. Weathers said that while divers are expected to be more consistent as fatigue is not an issue, his swimmers do not take Perry-Eaton's consistency for granted.
Prior to the weekend, Weathers said he wanted his team to swim its hardest, win or lose, to show themselves they were ready for the Big East Championships.
So is the team ready to travel to Uniondale, N.Y. on Feb. 20?
"This win gave us a lot of confidence in terms of where we are," Weathers said. "The girls are really looking forward to the Big East Championships. This meet gave us real good idea of where we are and what we have to do to get the girls ready, which is important."
The Irish finish the dual-meet season one win behind the team's 10-1 record of a season ago and will now concentrate on resting for the upcoming championships.
All Sports Stories for Monday, February 3, 2003
