ResultsSTORRS, Conn. – In the final regular-season meet of the 2014-15 season, the Northeastern women's swimming team won five out of the 12 events it competed in at Saturday's Connecticut Open, hosted by UConn. With the meet not being scored, the Huskies welcomed their last opportunity to focus solely on improving their individual times before the league title meet, as NU will not participate competitively until the 2015 CAA championships between Feb. 21 and Feb. 28.
Besides Northeastern and Connecticut, Boston College, Bryant, Connecticut College (Div. III), Keene State (Div. III), and Rhode Island attended the meet.
First-year Huskies
Taylor Ellis and
Sara Touchette-McGowan both set new pool records at Connecticut's Wolff-Zackin Natatorium on Saturday morning. Ellis' time of 1:02.57 in the 100 breaststroke was more than five seconds faster than the rest of the field, while Touchette-McGowan's first-place time of 55.23 in the 100 butterfly also was a new pool best. The two NU swimmers combined for four of the Huskies' five event wins; Ellis won the 50 breaststroke with a time of 28.69, and Touchette-McGowan also finished first in the 100 freestyle (51.74).
Northeastern opened its meet with six strong performances and two top-three results in the 50 backstroke.
Christine Leong swam to a first-place time of 27.02, while senior
Erica DeMunbrun placed third with a time of 28.36.
Sophie Browne, who was champion of the 200 backstroke and 400 IM at the 2014 Connecticut Open, finished sixth with a time of 28.68.
Rachel Green (29.24),
Amanda Liew (29.32), and
Jessica Colucci (29.99) rounded out the event field for NU.
Competing in the 200 IM for the first time in 2014-15,
Megan Foran, the lone Husky to participate in the event, swam to a third-place time of 2:12.14 behind UConn swimmers Christine Pederson and Laura Ruttan.
Touchette-McGowan came within 0.41 seconds of Connecticut's Chinyere Pigot for first place in the 50 freestyle, but settled for second with a time of 23.88. Green's time of 24.27 earned the sophomore a third-place result, while
Kimberly Hill cracked the top five with a time of 24.68. All seven Northeastern swimmers who entered the 50 freestyle finished in the top 10 as Liew (24.83),
Jordan Domeier (24.88), Colucci (24.94), and
Delaney Lanker (24.95) placed sixth through ninth, respectively.
Tove Bjork tied for fifth place in the 100 breaststroke (1:08.60), and was the highest-placing NU swimmer behind Ellis' pool-record time.
Taylor Brew netted a top-10 finish with a ninth-place time of 1:09.05, while
Amit Palkovic (1:10.55) and Hill (1:12.61) brought home top-20 results.
Anila Mehta set a new personal best in the 200 backstroke on Saturday, as the freshman from Rochester, Minnesota, swam to a fifth-place time of 2:15.93.
Northeastern went one-two-three in the 100 butterfly as DeMunbrun (58.79) and
Caroline O'Brien (59.76) rounded out the top three behind Touchette-McGowan's pool-record performance. The Huskies completed another full sweep of the podium in the 100 freestyle as Touchette-McGowan, Domeier (52.75), and Foran (53.02) helped NU go one-two-three again for the second straight event. Hill (53.66) was 0.21 seconds away from setting a new personal best time in fifth place, while Geiger (54.53) tagged the wall in eighth.
Ellis (28.69) and
Anna Schegoleva (29.81) held onto the top two spots in the 50 breaststroke, while Bjork (31.73), Palkovic (32.20), and Geiger (32.38) cruised to top-15 results.
Schegoleva continued her dominance in the 100 backstroke this season with a first-place time of 56.48, beating out Pederson by more than a full second. Leong also notched a sub-minute time, 58.03, and finished the event in third. Lanker (1:00.33), Browne (1:01.16), and Mehta (1:04.12) all placed within the top 20.
Brew nearly topped her 2014-15 season best in the 200 breaststroke with a third-place time of 2:27.53, while Palkovic grabbed seventh place with a time of 2:29.22. O'Brien was the lone NU competitor in the 50 butterfly and swam to a fifth-place time of 27.33. Mehta competed in the 1650 freestyle instead of the 1000 freestyle, and chopped almost four whole seconds off her career-best time (18:55.99).
Northeastern's swimming team attended a meet for the first time this season away from its diving team at the Connecticut Open, and the two squads will also compete separately at the 2015 CAA championships. The CAA diving championships will take place between Saturday, Feb. 21 and Sunday, Feb. 22 in Newark, Delaware, while the CAA swimming championships will take place from Wednesday, Feb. 25 to Saturday, Feb. 28, in Richmond, Virginia. NU will look to improve on its sixth-place overall finish at the 2014 league title meet.
