Women claim 7th straight Big East title
By PAT LEONARD
Sports Writer
UNIONDALE, N.Y.
"How many times have you won Big East?"
Each swimmer and diver wears the green shirt with navy blue letters that asks this question. And each member of the Irish squad would be glad to answer that question.
Seven. Seven in a row.
Friday saw Notre Dame score high in numerous events, including victories in the 400 IM and the 1-meter diving. Heading into Saturday, Notre Dame led second-place Rutgers at the Nassau Aquatic Center, 501-428.
The Scarlet Knights accepted their challenge, taking second in the 1650 freestyle, first in the 200 backstroke and second in the 100 freestyle. Still, the Irish were too much on the final day of competition, with 16 swimmers scoring to Rutgers' 11. Notre Dame won its seventh consecutive Big East title with a team total 730 points.
"This has been our strongest day traditionally in terms of having all the stroke events," head coach Bailey Weathers said. "We feel like if we can get to this point and we're in the meet, then we can win the meet."
Weathers is confident in his girls, and his confidence has validity in their performance down the stretch.
In a microcosm of the championship weekend, Notre Dame junior Danielle Hulick overtook Rutgers in the final leg of the 400 freestyle relay, the night's last event. The team of Katie Eckholt, Courtney Choura, Heidi Hendrick and Hulick finished with a time of 3:21.18. Rutgers finished second in 3:23.05.
"We were ahead the whole time, but they were winning a lot of events and they were holding on," Hulick said. "We were a little worried about Rutgers at times, and they were really out to get us, you could tell."
The Irish established they would not back down on Friday. At least two swimmers scored in the top eight of every event, with as many as four swimmers competing in the final heat of a single swim.
Freshman Christel Bouvron (54.57) and Lisa Garcia (54.90) completed the 100 butterfly back-to-back at second and third.
In the 100 backstroke, Hulick (55.56), Kristen Peterson (56.13), Kara Santelli (56.34), and Sarah Alwen (56.73) finished third, fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, a huge number of points in only one event for the Irish.
Marie Labosky won the 400 IM with a time of 4:16.24, and Meghan Perry-Eaton scored a 309.20 for first in the 1-meter diving.
Even with the points amounting for the Irish by Friday's close, Notre Dame had a formidable task ahead of them Saturday. Tri-captain Heidi Hendrick knows how hard the team fought for this championship all the way through the weekend.
"We had a challenge up against us this year," said tri-captain Heidi Hendrick. "We did a lot better than any of us expected. We stepped up, and everyone swam extremely well across the board."
`Across the board' is an accurate description.
Even in events in which Rutgers scored well, the Irish hung around.
In the 100 freestyle, the Scarlet Knights' Casmera Wick took second with a time of (50.50), but Hendrick (51.05) and Eckholt (51.55) picked up points at sixth and ninth.
Rutgers' Kelly Harrigan won the 200 backstroke in 1:56.02 and in the process broke a record set by the Irish's own Erin Brooks in 1997 of 1:57.56. Again, there were
Hulick (2:00.27), Labosky (2:00.75), Alwen (2:01.43), Santelli (2:01.68), and Peterson (2:01.70) at fourth, fifth, seventh, ninth and 10th, respectively.
Weathers has nothing but praise for his swimmers.
"We had some great swims today and that was a big part of it," Weathers said. "I thought Lisa Garcia's butterfly swims were great. Our 100 freestylers were really good, and our backstrokers I thought were excellent."
Garcia, who holds the Notre Dame record in the 200 butterfly of 1:59.28), won the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:01.02. She also won the 200 IM on Thursday. Sophomore Brooke Taylor (2:01.37) finished third in the 200 fly and Christel Bouvron (2:05.08) took eighth. The 400 freestyle team captured the night's final event as the Irish closed strong.
"I was really pleased with [the championship]," Weathers said. "I thought it was going to be a really hard meet for us to win. We came in pretty much as an underdog to Rutgers and probably to Virginia Tech."
The Irish could have been an underdog, even at 9-1-1, because of the loss of defending Big East champions Carrie Nixon and Kelly Hecking. The two girls were wholly or partially responsible for all but one of Notre Dame's victories last year at Big East.
"I think this was better than any of the other years because we had to work harder," said Hulick. "This year, everyone was out to get us, but we had a talk last night and just said we had to cream them today, because the past few years [we've] won by hundreds of points. And we pulled it out."
So even as underdogs, Notre Dame was the team to beat — or, for the seventh year in a row, the team to lose to.
All Sports Stories for Monday, February 24, 2003
