Women's Swimming Starts Sixth Season At Bloomsburg Relays On Saturday

EVENT: Mount St. Mary's at Bloomsburg Relays
WHEN: Sat, Oct. 8, 2010, 12 p.m.
WHERE: Nelson Field House Pool, Bloomsburg, Pa.

opening dive... The Mount St. Mary's women's swimming team opens up its sixth season with its sixth appearance in the Bloomsburg Relays on Saturday.

last time at that event... Cat Coppler and sophomore Courtney Griffith participated in five relay victories to lead the Mount St. Mary's women's swimming team to a second-place finish at the Bloomsburg Relays in the season-opening event on Oct. 9, 2010. Coppler made an impressive debut swimming the opening leg in the winning 300-fly relay (3:02.46), the 800-free relay (8:18.67), the 200-free relay (1:43.82) and the 400-free relay (3:45.67) while also anchoring the winning the 500-free crescendo relay (5:01.80). Griffith swam the second leg of the winning 300-fly relay and the 800-free relay before swimming the third leg of the first place 200-free relay, the 400-free relay and the 500-free crescendo relay. Coppler and Griffith opened up the 300-fly relay before freshman Patricia Yam closed out the Mount's first winning relay of the year in the first event at the Bloomsburg Relay. Coppler, Griffith and Yam teamed up again for the first three legs of the 800-free relay before Victoria Shaw finished out the squad's second win of the afternoon. Freshman Mollie Walsh and Courtney Gaddi started the winning 500-free crescendo free before Griffith and Coppler concluded the event. The quartet of Coppler, Gaddi, Griffith and Walsh reunited to win the 200-free relay before Coppler, Gaddi, Griffith and Yam won the 400-free relay for Mount St. Mary's final win of the invitational. Coppler, Gaddi, Griffith and Walsh also finished second in the 4x100 IM (4:26.88).

next time in the water... Mount St. Mary's hosts Saint Francis (Pa.) on Oct. 17 at 5 p.m.

home pool advantage in 2011-12... Mount St. Mary's will host five days of competition this season. The Mount will open the home slate against Saint Francis (Pa.) on Oct. 17 before hosting Wagner on Oct. 22. The squad will then host Manhattan, NJIT on Oct. 28-29 while VMI will participate in the competition on Oct. 28 and McDaniel will compete on Oct. 29. The squad concludes its home schedule against Loyola on Feb. 4. The Mount holds a 13-5 mark at home, including a 6-0 record in 2010-11, 4-1 record in 2008-09 and a 3-1 standing in 2007-08.

about the team... Head coach Neil Yost's 2010-11 team is comprised of one graduate student (Murphy Alafoginis), two seniors (Molly Kristiniak and Chelsea Marrocco), one junior (Courtney Griffith) and eight sophomores (Cat Coppler, Emily Dargay, Megan Ebert, Jessica Gardner, Nicole Helmick, Victoria Shaw, Mollie Walsh and Patricia Yam) and four freshmen (Rebecca Kasda, Amanda Malmstrom, Erin Regan, Anne Thelen).

record-setting season…  Junior Courtney Griffith became the first player in program history to earn a spot on the All-Northeast Conference team after finishing second in the 100 fly (56.06) in 2011. Sophomore Patricia Yam became the second player in program history to earn All-NEC honors after placing third in the 200 fly (2:07.42). Griffith and sophomore Cat Coppler became the first Northeast Conference Swimmers of the Week after earning the honor for the first week of the 2010-11 season and then Griffith took home the honor again for the week of Nov. 9-15. As a team, the 253 points at the NEC Swimming & Diving Championships were the most in team history.

local product... Junior Courtney Griffith hails from Westminster, Md. A graduate of Westminster High School, the sophomore was a member of the Eagles Club at McDonough High School for four years. The junior became the first player in program history to earn an All-Northeast Conference selection after finishing second in the 100 fly (56.06) in 2011. She also placed fourth in the 50 free (24.07) and seventh in the 100 free (52.59) last year.

new to the mountain... Head coach Neil Yost has added five newcomers to his 2011-12 roster. Sophomore Megan Ebert and freshmen Rebecca Kasda, Amanda Malmstrom, Erin Regan, Anne Thelen join the team this season.

about the coach... Neil Yost, who enters his seventh season, became the first head coach in program history. Yost came to the Mount with nine years of coaching experience. Since 2002, Yost was the men's and women's swimming coach at Waynesboro High School. He also served as the head swimming coach and aquatics director at the Waynesboro Area YMCA. Before coaching at Waynesboro High School he was the aquatics director at the Westport/Weston YMCA from 2001-02. He was also the assistant swimming coach at Bloomsburg University and the head coach at the Central Columbia Aquatics Club for two years after serving as an assistant coach for two years. Yost started his coaching career as an assistant coach at the Central Columbia Aquatics High School from 1996-2000.