Women’s Swimming and Diving Finishes Terrapin Cup in Seventh

Radloff Wins Third Event, Only .06 Seconds Off NCAA Automatic Bid

11/18/06 10:00PM

COLLEGE PARK, MD - William and Mary’s women’s swimming and diving team finished seventh this evening on the final day of the Terrapin Cup Invitational, only 14 points out of sixth place. West Virginia won the team title, with Kansas taking second.

“This weekend was a major step in the development of our program,” said head coach McGee Moody. “I think we’ll see some even bigger things in the weeks and months ahead.”

Freshman Katie Radloff (Arlington, Va.) won her third race of the meet tonight, blazing to a new school record in the 100 free with a time of 49.55, only six hundredths of a second off of an automatic selection to the NCAA Championships. If selected, she would become the first Tribe women’s swimmer in 23 years, and only the second ever, to swim at the Division I National Championships (Erin Sheehey, 1983). Also in the 100 free, senior captain Marnie Rognlien (Nokesville, Va.) was fifth in 51.32, the second-fastest mark in school history.

Sophomore Marina Falcone (Potomac, Md.) had a monster swim in the 1650 freestyle, shattering Karen Laslo’s 15-year-old school record by 22.8 seconds and achieving an NCAA “B” cut with her time of 16:51.77. In an extremely fast race, her time placed her 14th. She also broke the school record in the 1000 free she set three weeks ago with her split time of 10:13.54. Also in the 1650 free, freshman Jill Hamilton (Bethesda, Md.) finished 19th with a personal-best time of 17:23.93, third-best all-time at the College.

Meredith David (Somerdale, N.J.) advanced to the consolation finals of the 200 backstroke with a morning swim of 2:05.05, the second-fastest time in the Tribe record book, and placed 14th overall with a finals swim of 2:05.30. Senior captain Kelly Reitz (Chesapeake, Va.) won the consolation finals of the 200 breaststroke, swimming a season-fast 2:21.32.

In the 200 butterfly, freshman Erin Welshofer (Charlotte, N.C.) was just off of personal-record pace, swimming 2:06.62 to claim 13th. Whitney Pezza (Warrenton, Va.) swam 2:06.57 in the bonus consolation race of the 200 fly to finish 18th, and senior Morgan Adams (Springfield, Ill.) claimed 23rd with a time of 2:10.80. The 400 free relay of Radloff, Sara Fitzsimmons (Lorton, Va.), Falcone, and Rognlien reset the school record by two seconds, to 3:28.22, and finished seventh overall.

Select Tribe swimmers will compete next weekend at the U.S. Open, while the team as a whole enters the winter holiday period.