The 17th annual America East Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Championships will be held at the Boston University's Aquatic Center on Thursday February 8, through Sunday February 11.
Last year the UMBC men won their third-straight conference title and the New Hampshire women earned back-to-back league crowns.
New Hampshire's Kary Goodman (Windham, Maine) returns as last year's Most Outstanding Swimmer. A year ago, she won and set meet records in the 200-medley relay, 100-back, 400-medley relay and 200-back, as well as winning the 200-butterfly.
UMBC's Ashlee Houghton (Frederick, Md.), the winner of last year's Most Outstanding Diver, returns to the pool to defend her one-meter dive title. The Retrievers will also look for top performances from Christina Cantwell (Sinking Spring, Pa.), Agnes Stanislawska (Zielona Gora, Poland), and Meghan Sackett (Cockeysville, Md.). Cantwell currently leads the conference in the 200-breaststroke, 100-breaststroke, and 400-IM, while Stanislawska leads the 200-freestyle and 200-IM and Sacket leads the 1650-freestyle and 500-freestyle events.
The UMBC men have had top performances in many events throughout the season. The Retrievers will look to Rasmus Kutt (Tallinn, Estonia), Scott Auchter (Wernersville, Pa.), Brian Koisim (White Plains, N.Y.), and Evan Roseberry (Sinking Spring, Pa.) as threats in multiple swimming events, while Jeff Salgado (Glen Rock, Pa.) is the top UMBC diver.
Binghamton swimmer, David Holmes (Doncaster, England), will be in contention for many titles this weekend, as he is the top performer in the 50-freestlye, 400-IM, 100-butterfly, 100-freestyle, 200-freestyle, and 200-butterfly.
Boston University will be led by the 2006 Most Outstanding Diver, Brian Lawler (San Luis Obispo, Calif.). He won the three-meter dive and finished second in the one-meter dive at the 2006 America East Championship. Lawler leads the conference in the three-meter dive this season.
Prelims being Thursday at 5 p.m. for the men's one-meter dive. Finals for the men's and women's 800-freestyle relay, men's one meter dive and men's and women's 200-medley relay will begin at 6 p.m.
Friday's prelims begin at 10 a.m. in the 500-freestyle, 200-individual medley, 50-freestyle and women's three-meter dive. Finals for these events, as well as the 200-freestyle relay will commence at 6 p.m.
Saturday's prelims will begin at 10 a.m. for the 400-individual medley, 100-butterfly, 200-freestyle, 100-breaststroke and 100-backstroke. Finals will start at 6 p.m. and will include these events, the men's three-meter dive and 400-medley relay.
On Sunday, premlims start at 10 a.m. and include the 1650-freestyle, 200-backstroke, 100-freestyle, 200-breaststroke and 200-butterfly. The championships for these events will follow, starting at 5:30 p.m., and include the one-meter dive and 400-freestyle.
Binghamton University, Boston University, University of Maine, UMBC, University of New Hampshire (women only), Stony Brook University and University of Vermont (women only) will all vie for the 2006 Swimming and Diving Championship.