Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
Thursday, March 28, 2024
The Observer

Women's Swimming: Irish take two in Pa.

The Irish made quite a splash at their inaugural ACC tri-meet.
The Irish (2-3) tallied 10 wins out of 16 events against ACC competitors Pitt (2-2) and Virginia Tech (7-4) at Tree Pools in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Saturday. Notre Dame beat the Panthers 193-107 and the Hokies 162-138 to secure two victories.
"We performed well, and what I like about this team is we perform better every time," Irish head coach Brian Barnes said. "We performed better than against Purdue and better against Purdue than at our first meet of the year. ... That's a good trend to have."
Irish sophomore Catherine Galletti said the results were a direct result of an attention to detail honed in practice.
"We've been focusing on improving the details in our races - getting off the blocks quicker, having faster turns, closing in on finishes," Galleti said. "The meet showed this."
In a meet that featured improvement across the whole team, senior Kelly Ryan had the standout performance. Ryan swept the short distance freestyle events, taking wins in the 50, 100 and 200.
"Kelly was a great contribution to the team today," Barnes said.
Ryan also anchored the 200-medley relay team of freshman Catherine Mulquin, senior Emma Reaney and Galletti. The relay team out-swam its competitors and touched the pad first to give the Irish the victory in the opening race of the meet, putting the team in a great position to dominate the following races.
"It's always fun to win the 200-medley relay because it's the first event of the meet," Galletti said. "It sets an exciting, competitive atmosphere for the rest of the day."
Improvement was noticeable in the medley relay as well, specifically by Mulquin.
"Catherine stepped up and really contributed to the relay," Galletti said. "Every leg of the relay continued to increase our lead throughout the race, resulting in a clear victory."
In addition to the relay victory, Reaney, junior Bridget Casey and freshman Katie Miller also boasted individual wins. Reany won the 200 IM and took both breaststroke events in NCAA B-cut times. She advanced her season individual event record to 8-1. Casey won the 200 fly, which marked the first time she won the event this season.
Miller claimed two individual victories in the 100 back and 500 freestyle, and she finished second in the 1000 free.
"I was really happy to see Katie win the 100 back and 500 freestyle," Barnes said. "That was a huge contribution to the team from her."
Following Miller and her runner-up finish in the ,000, junior Courtney Whytefinishedpsecond in the 100 fly, and Mulquin claimed a runner-up finish in the 100 back.
Sophomore Lindsey Streepey took a second-place finish in the 1-meter dive.
"Overall, I was happy with our race habits, and we are beginning to clean up well," Barnes said.
The Irish return to the pool to compete against Valparaiso on Friday at 5 p.m. and against Wisconsin on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Rolfs Aquatic Center.
Contact Kit Loughran at kloughr1@nd.edu