University of Louisville
at BIG EAST Championships
Aquatic Cardinal Complete First Day at BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIPS
February 15, 2006 | Swimming & Diving
Feb. 15, 2006
The University of Louisville men's and women's swimming and diving teams completed the first day of competition at the BIG EAST Conference Championships. The Cardinals had a day of lifetime bests, comebacks and school records at the Nassau County Aquatic Center in East Meadow, N.Y. The men are tied for fifth and the women stand at fourth.
Rutgers leads the women followed by Notre Dame, Pitt, Louisville, UConn, Cincinnati, Villanova, WVU, Syracuse, Seton Hall and Georgetown. Notre Dame leads the men's race followed by WVU, Pitt, Cincinnati, Syracuse, Louisville, Rutgers, UConn, Villanova, Seton Hall and Georgetown.
In one-meter springboard, Louisville's Marianne Bradford made a huge comeback to finish second. She didn't qualify for the finals, standing at No. 11 after prelims but after a diver was injured, she moved into the final and then came back to finish second.
"Her second place finish was great," said U of L coach Arthur Albiero. "She was in the hunt for the crown until the very end."
In the first event of the day, the 800-free relay, U of L women finished seventh, after having been seeded seventh. Leslie VanWinkle swam the leadoff leg and put up a lifetime best time but the Rutgers team was blazing fast finishing first, almost six seconds fastser than runnerup Notre Dame. The U of L men finished fifth with Vali Preda leading off with a lifetime best, followed by Matt Lees, Charlton Lawson and Tyler Smith. The men made up three spots after being seeded eighth.
"In the women's race it was a dogfight to the very end," said Albiero. "There was six tenths of a second difference between fourth and seventh. In both races, we were swimming in outside lanes in the face of strong competition in this championship.
The women set a new school record of 1:44.71 in the 200-medley relay race with a fifth place finish. Abby Miller, Heather Meng, Johanna Nyysti and Emily Rabe made it to the podium with their performance.
"We got a little hardware and set a school record," said Albiero. "This helps us gain some momentum going into Day 2."
The men also set a school record in the 200-medley relay. Andrei Teudean's first leg in the back was the fastest split in the field. Vali Preda put up the fastest 50 breast leg of the day giving the Cardinals a lead at the halfway point. Tyler Smith swam the fly with Jonathan Farnham putting up a 20.08 freestyle leg to get the record.
"It was a good first night for us," said Albiero. "We were just a bit shell shocked a the different level of competition from last year's meet at C-USA. I was very pleased with the 200-medley relay race and it gave us a good start to the meet."
