Wheaton women match best NEWMAC Championship showing in fourth as 15 school records fall, 4 earn all-conference, 3 NCAA times met

February 18, 2007

WELLESLEY, MA- The Wheaton College women's swimming and diving team placed fourth at the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championship for the third straight season, matching the best showing in program history, as the three-day event wrapped up on Sunday in Wellesley College's Chandler Pool. The Lyons finished just 18.5 points behind the third-place hosts, while Springfield College and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) took the top two spots, respectively.

Fifteen school marks fell as the Lyons recorded 602.5 points, the most tallied by Wheaton at a NEWMAC meet. Junior Abby Pratt (Melrose, MA/Melrose) and freshman Iris Meehan (Bar Harbor, ME/Mount Desert Island) each had a hand in seven program records, and Pratt earned all-conference honors by finishing among the top two four times, surpassing an eight-year-old Wheaton record. Meehan swam to all-conference laurels three times.

On Friday, four school records were set while an NCAA Championship time was met. During the 400-yard medley relay, Meehan, Pratt, junior Meg Miller (Duxbury, MA/Duxbury) and freshman Emily Sweatt (Portland, ME/Deering) placed second in a school-record time of 4:02.00, drawing the quartet all-conference honors. Meehan, Miller, Pratt and freshman Brenna Crothers (Mount Desert, ME/Mount Desert Island) combined to set the program's 200-yard freestyle relay standard at 1:39.69 during a fourth-place showing. Pratt eclipsed her own prior 50 free mark during each 50 free swim, including at 24.28 during a third-place finals showing, but her 24.27 leadoff leg of the 200 free relay finals proved to be even faster. Each performance met provisional qualification for the NCAA meet. Sophomore Stacy Zickl (Wrentham, MA/King Philip Regional) broke a six-year-old program mark in the one-meter dive, recording 353.75 points. Freshman Sarah Houlihan (West Springfield, MA/West Springfield) fell 0.25 seconds shy of an eight-year-old school record in the 500 free, finishing third in 5:19.76.

Seven records fell and two NCAA times were met on Saturday. Meehan, Miller, Pratt and Sweatt combined to take first in the 200-yard medley relay at 1:49.65, breaking the NEWMAC and school records, and provisionally qualifying for the national meet. It was Wheaton's first event victory at the conference meet since 2003, and the first time a Lyon relay team was victorious. Meehan eclipsed a four-year-old program mark in the 50-yard backstroke twice during the leadoff legs of the 200 medley relay, with her time of 28.58 in the preliminaries standing as the fastest. Meehan also broke a four-year-old mark in the 100 back at 1:00.61 while earning all-conference honors with a second-place finish. Pratt lowered her own program standard in the 100-yard butterfly to 59.82 during a runner-up and all-conference showing, while Sweatt twice bested her school mark in the 100-yard breaststroke, with the fastest time coming at 1:07.76 during a third-place finals finish that propelled her to NCAA provisional qualification. Sweatt eclipsed her 50 breast record twice in the opening leg of the 100 breast races, with her 31.47 preliminaries time being the fastest. Wheaton's 800-yard freestyle relay team set a school standard at 8:12.88 and finished fifth, as Houlihan was joined by sophomores Caitlin Glover (Durham, NH/Berwick Academy) and Casey Shanley (Rumson, NJ/Suffield Academy) and freshman Aurelie Marcotte (Hampden, MA/Minnechaug Regional).

On the final day, six school marks were set. Pratt finished second during the 100-yard freestyle in a program-standard time of 53.56 and twice broke her two-day-old 50 free record - first during a time trial in a national-meet showing of 24.24, and then again at 24.23 in the leadoff led of the 200 free relay time trial. Sweatt placed third during the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:27.40, the fastest in Wheaton history and 0.01 seconds off an NCAA provisional standard. Glover swam a school-record 2:14.66 in the 200-yard backstroke preliminaries, when Meehan also surpassed the former standard, before Meehan eclipsed both times with a third-place finish of 2:13.64 in the finals. Glover, Meehan, Miller and Pratt then joined for a third-place showing in the 400 free relay, turning in a school mark of 3:40.83 during the final event of the championship.

Wheaton's provisional qualifiers await word on whether they will compete at the NCAA Division III Championship, which will take place on March 8-10 at the University of Houston.

Following is a complete list of the top 16 individual and relay finishers for Wheaton over the three-day competition of the NEWMAC Championship:

Individual
Name Event Time Place
Iris Meehan 100 backstroke 1:00.61* 2nd
Abby Pratt 100 butterfly 59.82* 2nd
Abby Pratt 100 freestyle 53.56* 2nd
Sarah Houlihan 500 freestyle 5:16.69 3rd
Iris Meehan 200 backstroke 2:13.64* 3rd
Abby Pratt 50 freestyle 24.28^ 3rd
Emily Sweatt 100 breaststroke 1:07.76*^ 3rd
Emily Sweatt 200 breaststroke 2:27.40* 3rd
Sarah Houlihan 1650 freestyle 18:19.86 4th
Caitlin Glover 100 backstroke 1:02.28 5th
Caitlin Glover 200 backstroke 2:15.07 5th
Casey Shanley 1650 freestyle 18:31.16 5th
Stephanie Conelias 200 butterfly 2:18.54 5th
Cassie Bohn 200 breaststroke 2:33.24 5th-T
Stephanie Conelias 400 individual medley 4:54.10 6th
Colleen Smith 200 butterfly 2:19.94 6th
Cassie Bohn 100 breaststroke 1:10.77 7th
Stephanie Conelias 200 individual medley 2:17.30 7th
Mandy Cumings 200 backstroke 2:15.62 7th
Mandy Cumings 400 individual medley 5:00.11 7th
Casey Shanley 500 freestyle 5:22.46 7th
Aurelie Marcotte 100 backstroke 1:03.46 8th
Aurelie Marcotte 200 backstroke 2:17.51 8th
Meg Miller 50 freestyle 25.06 8th
Cassie Bohn 200 individual medley 2:18.02 9th
Sarah Houlihan 200 freestyle 2:01.77 10th
Emily Sweatt 200 individual medley 2:19.47 11th
Casey Shanley 200 freestyle 2:02.59 12th
Colleen Smith 100 butterfly 1:03.31 12th
Elizabeth Willis 100 backstroke 1:04.66 12th
Kristen Behrens 200 breaststroke 2:38.70 13th
Amy Dalrymple 400 individual medley 5:04.55 14th
Caitlin Glover 100 butterfly 1:03.39 14th
Meg Miller 100 freestyle 56.19 14th
Meg Miller 200 freestyle 2:03.88 14th
Amy Dalrymple 100 backstroke 1:06.25 15th
Iris Meehan 200 individual medley 2:20.37 15th
Mandy Cumings 200 individual medley 2:22.08 16th

Name Event Score Place
Stacy Zickl 1m dive 353.75* 13th

Relay
Name Event Time Place
Meehan, Sweatt, Pratt, Miller 200 medley relay 1:49.65*^ 1st
Meehan, Sweatt, Pratt, Miller 400 medley relay 4:02.00* 2nd
Pratt, Meehan, Glover, Miller 400 freestyle relay 3:40.83* 3rd
Pratt, Crothers, Meehan, Miller 200 freestyle relay 1:39.69* 4th
Houlihan, Marcotte, Shanley, Glover 800 freestyle relay 8:12.88* 5th
Glover, Bohn, Conelias, Marcotte 400 medley relay 4:09.13 11th
Marcotte, Cumings, Behrens, Glover 200 freestyle relay 1:43.95 13th
Marcotte, Crothers, Behrens, Cumings 400 freestyle relay 3:48.69 13th
Willis, Bohn, Smith, Crothers 200 medley relay 1:56.39 13th
Cumings, Behrens, Bohn, Crothers 800 freestyle relay 8:25.60 14th

* Denotes school record
^ NCAA national meet B standard

Complete Results

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