Women's Swimming Heads To NEC Swimming And Diving Championships Starting On Thursday

EMMITSBURG, Md. - The Mount St. Mary's women's swimming team heads to the Northeast Conference (NEC) Swimming & Diving Championships on Thursday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the Cambridge section of Boston, Mass. Now in its fifth season in program history, the Mount looks to improve on its sixth-place standing last season in the three-day event.

During the regular season, sophomore Courtney Griffith (Westminster, Md./Westminster) posted six Top-20 times. The sophomore posted the second-fastest time in the 100 fly (57.36), the third fastest time in both the 50 free (24.47) and 100 free (52.79), the eighth best in the 100 back (59.39) and Top-20 times in the 1650 free (18:32.70), the 200 fly (2:15.52) and the 400 IM (4:50.06).

Freshman Cat Coppler (Enfield, Conn./Enrico Fermi) has five Top-10 times and six in the Top-20 going into the championships. Coppler posted the fourth-fastest time in the 50 free (24.60), the fifth fastest mark in both the 1650 free (17:49.00) and the 100 fly (59.18), the eighth-best time in the 200 back (2:09.79) and the 10th-best mark in the 100 back (1:00.01) while also registering a Top-20 time in the 1000 free (11:07.09).

Fellow freshman Patricia Yam (Placenta, Calif./Rosary) has three Top-10 times and five in the Top-20. The freshman posted the second-best time in the regular season in the 200 back (2:12.39), the fifth-best mark in the 200 fly (2:08.84), the ninth-best time in the 400 IM (4:45.96) and Top-20 marks in the 200 free (1:58.52) and the 500 free (5:15.03).

Freshman Victoria Shaw (Malvern, Pa./Villa Maria Academy) has the fourth-best time in the 1650 free (19:25.31) while freshman Mollie Walsh (Havertown, Pa./Archbishop John Carroll) notched the fourth-best mark in the 200 back (2:12.94) and a Top-20 time in the 100 fly (1:00.28)

Maggie O'Connell Dubois posted the best finish in program history at the championships with a fifth-place standing in the 100 fly in 2009-10. Mount St. Mary's has had five Top-8 finishes in program history. Griffith had the top finish of the current swimmers with a ninth-place finish in the 100 back last season.

The Mountaineers have finished ninth, fifth, sixth and fifth in its first four appearances at the NEC Championships.

Event Schedule
Preliminary events will begin at 11:00 a.m. each day, with finals starting at 7:00 p.m. Results will be posted as soon as possible following the events.

The Conference championship shall consist of the following events on the following days:

February 17
200 yard freestyle relay
500 yard freestyle
200 yard individual medley
50 yard freestyle
400 yard medley relay
One-meter diving

February 18
200 yard medley relay
400 yard individual medley
100 yard butterfly
200 yard freestyle
100 yard breaststroke
100 yard backstroke
800 yard freestyle relay (swam at finals)

February 19
200 yard backstroke
100 yard freestyle
200 yard breaststroke
200 yard butterfly
400 ard freestyle relay
1,650 yard freestyle (last heat swam at finals)
Three-meter diving