EAST MEADOW, N.Y. – Villanova women's swimming and diving started its time at the BIG EAST Championships in golden fashion, logging a new program best in a winning 200 Medley Relay swim before taking first in the 800 Free Relay to bring the team to third place on Wednesday evening at the Nassau County Aquatic Center.
Through the first two sessions, the Wildcats accumulated 154 points. They are behind second-place Georgetown with 180 points and first-place UConn with 195.
The day began with the unit of
Kelly Montesi, Perri Stahl, Elizabeth Bailey and
Milly Routledge winning the 200 Medley relay in record fashion with a program-best mark of 1:39.53. That time was 11-hundredths of a second better than the previous best set by
Darby Goodwin,
Heather Farley,
Alexa Fabbri and
Taylor Wilson at the BIG EAST Championships in 2017. This year's winning team beat the rest of the field by over a second, finishing ahead of a neck and neck chase from Uconn and Georgetown. The Wildcats have won the event now for nine consecutive seasons.
Montesi and Routledge were back on the blocks in the 800 Free, teaming up with
Abbey Berloco and
Nicole Welch. They distanced themselves by over three seconds from second place Xavier, winning in 7:14.72. It is also the ninth straight event win for the 'Cats and marks back-to-back years this grouping has won.
In three-meter diving,
Andrea Holtz was seventh after the prelims with a score of 226. 45. She moved up to a fourth-place finish in the finals with a total score of 473.40.
Day two of the BIG EAST Championships includes the 500 Freestyle, 200 Individual Medley, 50 Freestyle and the 200 Freestyle Relay. Prelims begin at 10 a.m. with diving at noon, followed by finals at 5:45 p.m.
