Sunday results

2011 MET results

Piscataway, NJ … The College of New Jersey women's swimming and diving team won its fourth consecutive Metropolitan (MET) Conference Championship. The Lions bested the 19-team field by compiling 1585.5 points to claim the 2011 title.

Junior Laura Pierce (Cherry Hill, NJ/Cherry Hill West) was named 2011 MET Swimmer of the Meet and sophomore Danica Roskos (Pennington, NJ/Hopewell Valley) earned MET Diver of the Meet honors. Head coach Jennifer Harnett received MET Coach of the Year honors for the fourth straight year and Lions' diving coach Candace Gottlieb was cited as MET Diving Coach of the Year.

Pierce turned heads when she set MET and TCNJ school record with an astounding finish of 50.93 in the 100-yard freestyle event. The record-setting pace was also an NCAA automatic qualifier. It was the second MET and TCNJ record Pierce set during the weekend.

Sophomore Caroline Kelly (Lawrenceville, NJ/Lawrence) took sixth in the event with a time of 54.01.

TCNJ built a large cushion heading into the final day of competition and increased that margin in the opening event at senior Margaret Molloy (Toms River, NJ/Toms River East) won the 1650-freestyle event with an NCAA B-cut time of 17:27.16. She was followed by sophomore Jenny Zavoda (East Brunswick, NJ/East Brunswick) who placed second in the race posting 17:43.97.

In the 200-breast, sophomore Kayleigh Shangle (Highland Park, NJ/Highland Park) matched a Lions' school record that was set by teammate Katie Morgan (Westfield, NJ/Westfield), who placed third in that same final. Shangle won the race with a time of 2:21.07, tying the school mark set by Morgan two years ago. Morgan touched the wall third registering a time of 2:24.94.

A pair of freshman and seniors dominated the 200-backstroke event. Rookie Ashley Conroy (Toms River, NJ/Monsignor Dononvan) shattered her own school record registering a time of 2:06.64 to place second. Classmate Hailey Growney (Rockaway, NJ/Morris Hills) finished fourth in the race clocking an NCAA provisional time of 2:07.51.

Taking the seventh and eighth place spot in the A-final were seniors Kristyn Wikoff (Shrewsbury, NJ/Red Bank Regional) and Jennifer Rashti (Cherry Hill, NJ/Cherry Hill West). Wikoff recorded a time of 2:11.09 and Rashti finished in 2:13.18.


Roskos set the MET and TCNJ record in the 1-meter diving event in the preliminary round amassing a total of 526.85. She placed first in the finals with a score of 525.55 while rookie teammate Sabrina Lucchesi (Columbus, NJ/Notre Dame) took second place with a point total of 474.70.

Records continued to fall in the 400-free relay as junior Tracy Hofer (Millville, NJ/Millville), sophomore Kayleigh Shangle (Highland Park, NJ/Highland Park), senior Margaret Molloy (Toms River, NJ/Toms River East), and junior Laura Pierce (Cherry Hill, NJ/Cherry Hill West) posted a winning time of 3:29.17. That topped TCNJ program record by one second that was set a year ago.

TCNJ is idle until the 2011 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships held from March 23 through March 26 in Knoxville, TN. The meet will be held at the University of Tennessee.