Records can't propel Belles to high finish
by JANEL MILLER
Sports Writer
After strong performances led them to a fifth place position at the MIAA Swimming and Diving Championships, the Belles could only wonder where Friday and Saturday would take them after Thursday night's competition.
The Belles began their journey with two goals. First: swim to achieve a personal best. Second: beat Alma and Albion. They would soon find they lost sight of the latter, and instead focused on beating themselves.
The Saint Mary's swimming and diving team end their season with a sixth place at conferences behind both Alma and Albion. Personal best times and school records were broken, however.
"In the beginning our main focus was Alma and Albion but as the meet went on and the records started falling and people were swimming personal bests we forgot about the other teams and focused on us," said senior co-captain Colleen Sullivan.
Sullivan could not be any happier with her own performance at her last collegiate competition. On Saturday she broke the 100-yard freestyle record in prelims and then reset it that evening in finals and a fifth place finish with a time of 55.84 seconds. She was also a member of the 200-yard freestyle relay team that broke the school record and the 400-medley relay team that missed the record by a slim margin on Thursday.
Sullivan joined by Chloe Lenihan, Lauren Smith, and Megan Ramsey took the 200-medley relay record, a time of 1:55.90 and a fourth place. Later Ramsey and Sullivan teamed with Elizabeth Doro and Maureen Palchak set the 400 free relay record (3:45.61).
The same four went on to grasp a third place and two records during the 800 free relay. As the lead off swimmer Ramsey added the 200 freestyle record to her name. The relay team with a time of 8:13.97 also conquered the record books.
Ramsey went on to break her own records in both the 100 and 200-yard butterfly events. Her third place finish and time of 1:00.87 in the 100 and second place finish and time of 2:13.5 in the 200 were not enough to make the NCAA cuts. Although she missed the sought after NCAA National qualifying times in both these events, Ramsey is satisfied with setting her own time standards this year.
"There is no way I can be upset," said Ramsey. "I still had great swims even though I didn't qualify, I dropped a huge amount of time in both races, just not enough."
Both Lauren Smith and Maureen Palchak also contributed top six finishes to the Belles. Smith taking sixth in both 100 and 200-yard breaststroke events. Palchak complimented Sullivan's fifth place performance in the 50-yard freestyle with the sixth.
All Sports Stories for Monday, February 19, 2001
