PITTSBURGH, PA. – The America East had three schools representing the conference at the ECAC Championships for Swimming & Diving. UMBC, New Hampshire and Vermont all travelled to the steel city for the large event that began on Friday, February 27th.
At the conclusion of the three day event, all three schools finished in the top ten: UMBC finished in tenth with 99 points, New Hampshire took eighth with 189 points, and the Catamounts tallied a total of 256.
New Hampshire Freshman Elizaveta Baykova dominated the meet, winning three individual events, and earning the right to be crowned the Women’s Swimmer of the Meet.
The Moscow, Russia native won three events, the 50-yard freestyle (23.23), 100-yard freestyle (50.63), and 200-yard freestyle (1:47.54). Baykova’s time time in the 200 is a new ECAC Record, which was previously held by former UNH swimmer Jenni Roberts.
Fellow Freshman Jessica Harper of New Hampshire took second place in the 200-yard freestyle, touching the end wall in a time of 4:55.61.
Sophomore Sarah Broderick joined Baykova on the podium in the 100-yard freestyle, finishing third in the final with a time of 51.08.
Senior Katie Mann competed in the 200-yard breaststroke, and turned in a silver medal performance, touching the wall in 2:10.99.
For the UMBC Retrievers, sophomore Amanda Day finished in third in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 56.06 seconds. Fellow sophomore Hannah Sutherland finished sixth in the event in 57.06.
Sutherland also competed in the 200-yard backstroke and took the seventh spot (2:05.18).
Sophomore Lauren Day competed in the 100-yard backstroke and took 8th place with a pace of 57.72 seconds.
The 2015 America East Swimming & Diving Championship’s Most Outstanding Emily Escobedo won the 200-yard breaststroke with a new ECAC Championship record time of 2:09.88
The University of Vermont placed highest among America East teams at the ECAC Swimming & Diving Championship.
The quartet of Christa Weaver, Andie Blaser, Courtney Gray, and Abby Holmquist placed third in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
In the 200-yard medley relay, Gray, Shannon Cowley, Blaser, and Weaver swam their way to a second place finish, (1:44.27) less than a second behind the victors from the University of Pittsburgh.
Vermont continued their strong performances in the relay events with a third place placement in the 400-yard freestyle. Gray, Blaser, Kelly Lennon, and Weaver earned silver medal standing with a finals time of 3:29.37.
Gray continued her excellent performance at the championship, placing runner-up in the 100-yard butterfly (55.94).
Cowley finished in fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke, swimming to the speed of 1:02.92. In the 200-breast, the freshman finished respectively in fifth place at 2:19.01.
In the three-meter dive, Maggie Preston, the 2015 America East Swimming & Diving Championship’s Most Outstanding Diver, placed eighth with a total point sum of 235.65.
Next on the docket for America East swimmers are the NCAA Championships in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The Zone Diving Championships being on Monday, March 9th.