Golden girls
Falcons garner seven golds in dual meet victory

SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – Notre Dame Swimming & Diving opened the 2007-08 home campaign when they hosted Hiram in dual meet action on Friday. NDC outswam the Terriers 110-95 for the first dual meet win in program history.

The Falcons swept the first four events beginning with the 200 Yard Medley Relay. NDC picked up the first of seven first place finishes with the team of Emily Perkins (So/Cincinnati, OH), Jackie Walsh (Fr/Findlay, OH), Maria Buenano (So/Guyaquil, Ecuador) and Kelly O'Connor (So/Peoria, AZ) finishing in 1:59.38, a new program best and a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Championship cutoff time.

In the 1,000 Yard Freestyle came down to three-tenths of a second as Maggie Simpson (Fr/Hudson, OH) touched out Nora Plisga (Sr/Columbus, OH) with a time of 11:38.94. Shannan Fitzgerald (So/Hewitt, NJ) took home gold number three in the 200 Yard Freestyle, touching in first in 2:04.80. Rounding out the first half of the meet was O'Connor in the 50 Yard Freestyle (26.32).

In the closing stance of the dual, the Terriers and Falcons split top finishes with three apiece. Freshman freestyler, Caley Miller (Fremont, OH) clocked in just .18 seconds ahead of Katie Piedomenico (So/Stow, OH) for the fourth first-place win of the evening. Newcomer Buenano followed in fast waters with a 5:42.23 victory in the 500 Freestyle. O'Connor closed out the gold medal run for the Blue & Gold with her third for the evening in the 100 Breaststroke (1:14.32).

NDC jumps back into competition tomorrow with a crosstown match-up with John Carroll on Saturday, Nov. 3. The meet is slated to begin at 1:00pm.