After the first day of the Big East Championships in New York, the women's swimming and diving team is neck and neck with Rutgers in an effort to claim its eighth consecutive Big East title. The men's squad finds itself locked in a four-way race for the title.
Led by event victories from the 200-yard freestyle relay team (freshmen Katie Carroll and Rebecca Grove, junior Katie Eckholt and senior Danielle Hulick), senior Meghan Perry Eaton (1-meter diving) and Carroll (200-yard individual medley), the No. 20 Irish recorded 199 points on Thursday, good for second behind Rutgers (199.5) and in front of third place Virginia Tech (180.5).
Including Carroll, the Irish took four of the top eight spots in the 200-yard individual medley as senior Lisa Garcia took second, freshman Ann Barton placed fifth and senior Marie Labosky finished eighth.
Hulick and Grove chipped in second- and third-place finishes, respectively, in the 50-yard freestyle and the 400-yard medley relay (Hulick, Carroll and sophomores Christel Bouvron and Courtney Choura) placed second.
The men's squad (169.5) currently sits in third place behind No. 16 Pittsburgh (234) and Virginia Tech (191.5) and ahead of Rutgers (152).
A pair of third- and a trio of fourth-place finishes put the Irish in the hunt at the of the meet's first day.
Freshmen Tim Kegleman (200-yard individual medley) and Ted Brown (500-yard freestyle) each took third and sophomore Jaime Lutkus (200-yard individual medley), freshman Scott Coyle (3-meter board) and the 500-yard freestyle relay team (Kegelman, freshman Tim Randolph, sophomore Doug Baumanand junior Frank Krakowski) all placed fourth.
In addition, senior co-captains Matt Obringer (500-yard freestyle) and Josh Dermott (200-yard individual medley) contributed sixth- and seventh-place finishes, respectively.
The meet continues today and concludes Saturday, with preliminaries at 10:30 a.m. and event finals at 6 p.m.
