Notre Dame won its final home meet of the season with a 209-80 victory over Cleveland State at Rolfs Aquatic Center on Saturday.
The Irish (7-9) claimed victories in 14 of the 16 events on the day, including two victories each for junior Genevieve Bradford, seniors Emma Reaney and Courtney Whyte and freshman Molly Treble. Notre Dame swimmers also finished first in the other two events but chose to exhibition them, so they did not count on the scoresheet.
Irish coach Tim Welsh said he was impressed with his team’s performance and glad his team was able to enjoy a successful final home meet of the year.
“We always like swimming and diving in our own pool,” Welsh said. “So having another meet in our own pool is always a good thing.
“We were able to focus a little bit on the seniors so we had a seniors-only first relay and a seniors-only last relay, so we were able to celebrate our seniors at the beginning and end of each meet, and we always like doing that.”
Many members of the team also swam in different events from their usual ones. Welsh said this allowed the team to prepare better for the ACC championships, where some members of the team will compete in alternate events.
“We tried to do something in preparation for conference championships," Welsh said.
“Emma Reaney swam the 200 backstroke because one of the events she’ll swim in at the championships will be the individual medley.
“Molly Treble is going to swim the mile, so we tried to swim her back-to-back in the 1,000 and the 200 to build her confidence about how fit she is and how ready she is to swim a mile at the championships. Several things like that took place in our selection of events.”
This decision led to victory for Reaney in the 200-yard backstroke, while Treble won both the 1,000-yard and 200-yard freestyle, despite having only 10 minutes of rest between these events.
“When you get close to the end, you start looking at some issues that won’t be visible on the scoresheet, how we handle our speed off the wall and off the dive and things like that,” Welsh said. “It was a meet to look at those kind of things that don’t show up on the scoresheet, but they’ll help us come championship time.”
Reaney also won the 100-yard breaststroke in an NCAA ‘B’ cut time, while freshman Annie Crea achieved an NCAA zone C qualifying mark in the 1-meter dive. Whyte earned victories in the 100-yard backstroke and butterfly, while Bradford won the 100-yard freestyle and 200-yard breaststroke.
Notre Dame swims next at the ACC championships in Atlanta, Georgia, beginning on Feb. 18.
