Swimming and Diving Grabs Eighth Place at NEWMAC Championships
WELLESLEY, Mass. (Feb. 21, 2010) – For the tenth consecutive season, the Springfield College women’s swimming and diving team took home top honors at the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championships. The Pride racked up 839 points over the course of the three day event, which was hosted by Wellesley College at Chandler Pool.
Springfield finished ahead of MIT (694), Wheaton College (566), the Coast Guard Academy (449), Clark University (382), Wellesley (284), WPI (203), Mount Holyoke College (171), Babson College (134) and Smith College (102).
Mount Holyoke was led by Lindsay Schonborn who figured in on seven school records. As a team, the Lyons shattered eight program records during the competition. The eighth was established today in the 400-yard freestyle relay by Schonborn, first year Joan Burton, sophomore Lydia Bowers and first year Nora Cunningham, who finished in sixth place with a time of 3:41.32. Burton also fared well in the 200-yard butterfly, taking seventh place with a time of 2:17.32.
Earlier in the weekend, Mount Holyoke broke school records in the 200-yard freestyle relay (Schonborn, Rooney, Burton, Bowers - 1:41.09), the 200-yard individual medley (Schonborn - 2:14.79), the 400-yard medley relay (Schonborn, Burton, Bowers, Cunningham – 4:07.12), the 100-yard breaststroke (Schonborn – 1:09.02), the 50-yard breaststroke (Schonborn – 32.65), the 100-yard butterfly (Burton – 59.11) and the 800-yard freestyle relay (Schonborn, Burton, Rooney, Bowers - 8:06.36).
Coast Guard’s Kimberly Shadwick was named NEWMAC Swimmer of the Year after touching the wall first in the 200-yard, 500-yard and 1,650-yard freestyle events. She hit NCAA “A” cuts in each event and also broke NEWMAC Championship records in each of her wins. In addition, Shadwick became a three-time champion in the 1,650-yard freestyle and repeated as champion in both the 200-yard and 500-yard freestyle competitions.
Clark’s Eileen Garcia took home NEWMAC Diver of the Year accolades after finishing atop the standings in both the one and three-meter competitions. After recording a score of 464.75 in the one-meter event, she posted a score of 511.35 off the three-meter board. Both scores were Championship records and rank in the top five in Division III this season.
Anna Kokensparger of MIT was crowned NEWMAC Rookie of the Year after claiming three individual titles. She registered top times in the both the 100-yard and 200-yard butterfly events as well as the 200-yard individual medley. In addition to hitting NCAA “A” cuts, she also established new Conference records in each. Kokensparger anchored MIT’s record setting wins in the 400-medley relay, the 400-yard freestyle relay and the 800-yard freestyle relay, as well.
The Lyons rounded out their 2009-10 campaign with a dual meet record of 4-4.
2009-10 NEWMAC Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships
Team Standings
1. Springfield College – 839
2. MIT – 694
3. Wheaton College – 566
4. Coast Guard Academy – 449
5. Clark University – 382
6. Wellesley College – 284
7. WPI – 203
8. Mount Holyoke College – 171
9. Babson College – 134
10. Smith College – 102
NEWMAC Swimmer of the Year
Kimberly Shadwick, Coast Guard
NEWMAC Diver of the Year
Eileen Garcia, Clark
NEWMAC Swimming and Diving Rookie of the Year
Anna Kokensparger, MIT
Event Winners/First Team All-Conference
200-yard freestyle relay – Springfield (1:37.96+)
(Kaitlin Reilly, Aimee Doe, Jaclyn Van Waalwijk, Caroline Kosciusko)
500-yard freestyle - Kimberly Shadwick, Coast Guard (4:58.50*!)
200-yard individual medley – Anna Kokensparger, MIT (2:04.90*!)
50-yard freestyle – Amy Jocobi, MIT (24.11+)
400-yard medley relay – MIT (3:59.07+)
(Sarah Scodel, Lauren Lo, Amy Jacobi, Anna Kokensparger)
One-meter diving – Eileen Garcia, Clark (464.75)
200-yard medley relay – Wheaton (1:48.68+)
(Iris Meehan, Nicole Zais, Taryn Brosnan, Dania Piscetta)
400-yard individual medley – Meredith Trumbull, Springfield (4:40.56)
100-yard butterfly – Anna Kokensparger, MIT (55.66*)
200-yard freestyle – Kimberly Shadwick, Coast Guard (1:51.66!)
100-yard breaststroke – Nicole Zais, Wheaton (1:07.56+)
100-yard backstroke – Megan Cooney, Springfield (59.26+)
800-yard freestyle relay – MIT (7:38.45)
(Sydney Giblin, Elina Hu, Amy Jacobi, Anna Kokensparger)
1,650-yard freestyle - Kimberly Shadwick, Coast Guard (17:13.07*!)
200-yard backstroke - Megan Cooney, Springfield (2:08.32+)
100-yard freestyle - Amy Jacobi, MIT (3.02+)
200-yard breaststroke - Nicole Zais, Wheaton (2:23.88+)
200-yard butterfly - Anna Kokensparger, MIT (2:04.10*!)
400-yard freestyle relay – MIT (3:30.56)
(Sydney Giblin, Elina Hu, Amy Jacobi, Anna Kokensparger)
Three-meter diving - Eileen Garcia, Clark (511.35*+)
* - NEWMAC Championship record
+ - NCAA "B"/provisional standard
! - NCAA "A" standard