No times to waste
Falcons set seven new records at midseason invite

SOUTH EUCLID, The Notre Dame Women’s Swimming & Diving competed at the Wooster Invitational hosted by the College of Wooster and continued down the path of success paved this season. The Falcons finished in eighth place out of 11 women’s teams with 487 points which more than doubled their total points from last year’s appearance at the meet.

In the three-day competition, the Blue & Gold earned one top-three finish as Maria Buenano (So/Guayquil, Ecuador) took home the Silver medal in the 200 Yard Butterfly.

Over 30 new personal records were set at the meet along with seven new program records. Highlighting the weekend’s success was Maggie Simpson (Fr/Hudson, OH) who set program and personal records in the 400 Individual Medley with a time of 5:13.01 and the 1650 Yard Freestyle touching in at 19:29.30. Both performances were good enough for an NAIA National Championship qualifier.

The Wooster Invitational wraps up the first half of the 2007-08 campaign. The Falcons are out of the meet circuit until Jan. 12 when they host Ohio Northern at 8:00am to close out their winter training schedule.

Notes from the Nest...

Four strokes for Fitzgerald: Sophomore Shannan Fitzgerald (Hewitt, NJ) set a new program in the 200 Individual Medley with a time of 2:19.17. Her time also qualifies for NAIA Championships and a No. 15 ranking.

Come fly with them: Sophomore sensations Maria Buenano (Guyaguil, Ecuador) and Shannan Fitzgerald have been huge assets to the 2007-08 Butterfly corps. In the Nov. 27 national rankings, Buenano is ranked ninth in the 100 butterfly and eighth in the 200. Fitzgerald notches a 15th place ranking in the 200 butterfly.

Medal Count: Maria Buenano leads the Falcons with 11 medals this season. She has garnered five Gold, five Silver and one Bronze medal in her rookie season in Blue and Gold. Emily Perkins (So/Cincinnati, OH) ranks second on the team in total medals with ten (two Gold, four Silver and four Bronze).