CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Erin Regan (Fort Washington, Pa./Upper Dublin) became the first swimming in program history to win an event and has been named the Rookie of the Meet to pace the Mount St. Mary's women's swimming team to a fifth-place standing at the Northeast Conference (NEC) Swimming & Diving Championships on Saturday.
Regan finished first in the 200 fly with a time of 2:04.03 to become the Mount's first-ever conference champion in an event in team history. The freshman posted a second-best standing in the 100 fly and teammate Courtney Griffith (Westminster, Md./Westminster) was second in the 100 fly at the championships last season for the squad's best performances before Regan's victory on Saturday.
Regan finished first in the 200 fly (2:04.03), second in the 100 fly (56.96) and eighth in the 500 free (5:07.19). The freshman was also a member of the fifth place 400-medley relay (4:00.30) and the fifth place 800-free relay (7:48.78) and capped her first conference championships by anchoring the 400-free relay (3:30.73) that finished fourth to become the first Mountaineer ever named the NEC Rookie of the Meet.
Patricia Yam (Placenta, Calif./Rosary) finished third in the 200 fly (2:06.54) to notch her second third-place standing after finishing third in the event last season.
Griffith finished sixth in the 100 free (52.43) while Mollie Walsh (Havertown, Pa./Archbishop John Carroll) (14th, 54.44) and Anne Thelen (Raleigh, N.C./Archbishop Spalding) (16th, 54.90) competed in the 100 free "B" finals of the 100 free.
Cat Coppler (Enfield, Conn./Enrico Fermi) finished ninth in the 200 back (2:06.37). Griffith, Walsh and Coppler swam the first three legs of the fourth place 400-free relay.
St. Francis (Pa.) won the event with a score of 748, one point ahead of Central Connecticut State (747) while Wagner (552), Bryant (547), the Mount (348), Sacred Heart (210) and St. Francis (N.Y.) (155) rounded out the seven-team field.
Mount St. Mary's broke a team record for points at the NEC Championships for the second-straight season. The Mount posted 348 points this season after registering 253 points in 2011. The Mountaineers notched six Top-3 finishes this season after posting its first two Top-3 finishes at the league championships last season.
