The inaugural team of Ashley McClure, Sam Gelberger, Stephanie Van Horn, Melissa DiGregorio and Melissa Maestas made their mark in the top 10 on day one of the competition and never relinquished that place. The team set 10 school records during the event and not only improved their times from the season, but also dropped several times from the preliminary round into the finals.
"It was good to see a team of only five women place so high when we know we will be a full team next year," said head coach Ken Dory. "Although all of the team records might not sound like a big accomplishment being a first year team, we still had to swim faster at nationals to break our own records set earlier in the year."
Van Horn accounted for six time drops alone during the event, lowering her personal times in the freestyle events at 50, 100, 200 and 500 yards. She also swam a pair of fly legs on the relay teams to help with two other lower marks.
Both the 400 and 800 free relay teams qualified for the final round and grabbed 8th place overall to help the team score valuable points. Ashley McClure led the team with eight points scored while Van Horn took 14th in the 200 free and DiGregorio placed 16th in the 100 free. The Eagles also sent both medley relay teams and the 200 free relay teams into the consolation rounds.
