BUFFALO, N.Y. - The Xavier men's and women's swimming teams surged toward the top of the conference during Friday night's session of the 2004 Atlantic 10 Swimming and Diving Championships.
Overall, the men are in fourth place behind Massachusetts, St. Bonaventure and La Salle while the women are fifth behind Richmond, St. Bonaventure, Massachusetts and George Washington. However when calculating just swimming scores, Xavier's men remain in fourth place while the women move up to third behind Richmond and St. Bonaventure.
Four Xavier relay records were broken on Friday as Xavier's men and women both set new school bests in the 800 Freestyle and 200 Medley Relays.
The men's 800 Freestyle Relay team of David Janszen, Matt Young, Kyle Hawley and Matt Normile placed second with a time of 6:52.52 as the top relay finisher of the day for XU.
The men's 200 Medley Relay was third in a time of 1:35.09 as the team of Mike Thallemer, Daniel Milheim, Neil Reierson and Janszen broke the school record.
The Xavier women's 200 Medley Relay of Molly Moeller, Krystel Kooyman, Sarah Brown and Angie Hinrichs broke the school record with a time of 1:48.84 while placing third.
Finally, the women's 800 Freestyle Relay of Janet Heil, Sarah Brown, Natalie Lindquist and Dana Hunter were seventh in a time of 7:49.03.
Heil, a junior from Fort Mitchell, Ky., was the second female of the day to break the school record in the 100 Butterfly as she placed ninth with a time of 59.18. Sophomore Sarah Brown (Raleigh, N.C./Cardinal Gibbons), who earlier in the day established a new school record with a time of 59.23 in the Prelims, finished in 12th place.
Heil also reached the finals of the 400 IM along with junior Becky Faust and senior Heather Greidanus. Heil finished seventh while Faust (St. Louis, Mo./Cor Jesu Academy) was eighth and Greidanus (Pewaukee, Wis./Arrowhead) was 15th.
Junior Matt Young had the top individual performance for the second straight day for Xavier. Young, who was second in Thursday's 200 IM, also placed second in the 400 IM in a time of 4:03.34. He was followed by seniors John Janszen (Cincinnati, Ohio/St. Xavier) in seventh place and Jeremy Clark (Marion, Ohio/Marion Harding) in 15th place.
Xavier also had three finalists in the Women's 100 Breaststroke as junior Sarah Blush (Brighton, Mich./Brighton) was sixth, freshman Krystel Kooyman (Louisville, Ky./Ballard) was seventh and senior Danielle Miller (Middletown, Ohio/Lakota East) was 12th.
The complete results of the 2004 Atlantic 10 Swimming and Diving Championships can be found on the A-10 Swimming web page at www.atlantic10.org.
The final day of competition will begin at Erie Community College on Saturday with Time Trials at 11:00 a.m. and Finals at 6:30 p.m.
