To say that freshman swimmer Katie Carroll has turned in an impressive rookie campaign would be an understatement.A month after becoming just the fourth freshman and third Notre Dame swimmer to win three individual races at the Big East Championship, Carroll will head to College Station, Texas Thursday through Saturday to compete in the prestigious NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships as the lone Irish swimmer and one of just two Notre Dame representatives at the competition.Carroll began her Big East Championships domination by posting the top time in both the preliminaries and finals of the 200-yard individual medley on Feb. 19. Her finals time of 2 minutes, 0.65 seconds, set both University and meet records, edging the mark of 2:01.00 set by senior co-captain Lisa Garcia at last year's Big East Championship.In addition to engraving her name in the record books, the effort was an NCAA "A" time, thereby automatically qualifying her for the NCAA Championships.Following the victory in the 200-yard IM, Carroll won both the 100-yard butterfly (54.29) and the 100-yard freestyle (50.14) - both "B" times - to complete the trifecta and was awarded the Big East Championship's Most Outstanding Swimmer.The freshman phenom will swim in the 100-meter freestyle and both the 200-meter and 400-meter individual medleys.In addition to Carroll, senior diver Meghan Perry Eaton will also be competing in the national meet.Last Friday, the two-time Big East Championship's Most Outstanding Diver became the first Irish diver to win an event at the NCAA Zone C Diving Championship by placing first in the one-meter board. Perry Eaton's final score of 564.30 easily eclipsed runner up Tealin Keleman of Michigan (535.35).On Saturday, Perry Eaton finished sixth on the three-meter board with a score of 473.00.Over the course of the season, the senior has been nearly unbeatable on both the lower and higher boards, going undefeated on the three-meter board prior to this past weekend and losing only once on the one-meter board to Keleman at the Michigan Invitational in mid-January.
However, Perry Eaton exacted a little revenge two weeks later in a dual meet against Michigan and yet again last Friday."[Keleman] and I are friends," Perry Eaton said. "It was fun to beat her in that respect."Last year, Perry Eaton garnered honorable mention All American honors at the NCAA Championships after finishing ninth on the one-meter board.Garcia and senior Marie Labosky will serve as two of 21 potential alternates at the meet.Preliminaries will be held at 11 a.m., with the top 16 competitors from the morning session competing in the finals later that evening at 7 p.m.Carroll will swim all three days whereas Perry Eaton will dive on Thursday and Friday.
