CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Erin Regan (Fort Washington, Pa./Upper Dublin) finished second in the 100 fly to pace the Mount St. Mary's women's swimming team to a fifth-place standing after the third day of the Northeast Conference (NEC) Swimming & Diving Championships on Friday.
The Mount dominated the 100 fly final, posting four of the eight participants in the event to mark the most Mount swimmers in a final in program history at the league's championships. Regan finished second in the event with a time of 56.96.
Courtney Griffith (Westminster, Md./Westminster), who posted the top time in the preliminaries with a new-record time in team history, finished right behind Regan in third place with a time of 57.30. Griffith finished second in the event last season. Patricia Yam (Placenta, Calif./Rosary) finished fourth in the 100 fly (58.66) while Mollie Walsh (Havertown, Pa./Archbishop John Carroll) was seventh in the event (59.31).
Cat Coppler (Enfield, Conn./Enrico Fermi) finished seventh in the 100 back (58.63) while Yam was 12th in the event (1:01.38). Anne Thelen (Raleigh, N.C./Archbishop Spalding) finished 13th in the 100 breast (1:09.22).
Coppler, Thelen, Regan and Walsh teamed up to place fifth in the 400-medley relay (4:00.30).
Central Connecticut State leads the competition with a score of 488, seven points ahead of Saint Francis (Pa.) (481) while Bryant (389), Wagner (337), Mount St. Mary's (256), Sacred Heart (158) and St. Francis (N.Y.) round out the seven-team field.
The Mountaineers have already broken last year's mark of number of times the squad has been on the podium. Griffith finished third in the 50 free and the 200-free relay was second on Thursday before Regan and Griffith added second and third-place standings on Friday. In 2010-11, Griffith was second in the 100 free and Yam and third in the 200 fly for the only other times the Mount has won medals at the championships in program history.
The 2012 NEC Swimming & Diving Championships conclude on Saturday. Teams will be competing in the 1650 free, 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly and 400-free relay. Preliminaries start at 11 a.m. with the finals slated to start at 7 p.m.
