Bulldogs finish fourth at NECs
OSTRANDER WINS THIRD SWIMMER OF THE MEET, BULLDOGS FINISH FOURTH AT NECs
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Junior Casey Ostrander (Yarmouthport, Mass.) claimed her third-straight Northeast Conference Swimmer of the Meet honor and the Bryant University women's swimming and diving team finished fourth at the 2012 NEC Swimming and Diving Championships.
Finishing with 547 points, the Bulldogs finished behind Saint Francis (PA), Central Connecticut and Wagner. The Red Flash finished with 748 points, one ahead of the Blue Devils, to win their second consecutive championship. Bryant finished five points behind Wagner. The Bulldogs' point total was the most points the Bulldogs had ever scored at a meet, eclipsing last year's total by 124 points.
In one of the best performances in school history, the Bulldogs broke seven school records in the four days of competition and re-wrote the coference record book, setting four conference records. In fact, seven conference records were set during the championships and the Bulldogs set four of them.
The reigning NEC Swimmer of the Meet, Ostrander continues to make a case as the greatest swimmer in NEC history. Already a gold medalist in the 50 free, 100 back and the 200 free relay, Ostrander sealed her third consecutive major award with a victory in the 200 back and in the 400 free relay. She set an NEC record and qualified for the Division I "B" cut in the 100 back on Friday and broke another NEC record in the 200 back Saturday, touching the wall with a time of 1:59.69. In the 400 free relay, Ostrander joined Kaitlin Buckley (Duxbury, Mass.), Taylor DeBever (Denver, Colo.) and Mara Valenzuela (Bridgewater, N.J.) in closing the meet with a school record time of 3:26.95.
Bryant earned two other medals on the final day of competition as Molly Smith (Belmont, Mass.) finished second in the 200 breast and DeBever finished third in the 100 free. Smith broke her own school record in the 200 breast, finishing with a time of 2:20.30. DeBever earned her fifth and sixth medals of the championships, finishing third in the 100 free with a time of 51.56 and helping the 400 free relay to a gold medal.
Also finishing in the top 10 of the 100 free was Buckley and Valenzuela. Buckley finished seventh with a time of 52.84 and Valenzuela finished ninth with a time of 53.06. Joining Smith in the "A" flight of the 200 breast was freshman Alexandra Morreale (Short Hills, N.J.) who finished eighth with a time of 2:28.99. Abby Whittaker (Salisbury, Mass.) added a 10th-place finish in the 200 fly with a time of 2:11.35.