JMU FINISHES THIRD AT CAA SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Wednesday, February 24

Fairfax, Va.

All Day

James Madison University

CAA Championship

JMU FINISHES THIRD AT CAA SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

2/28/2010 5:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving

FAIRFAX, Va., Feb. 27, 2010 - James Madison set three school records and maintained its position to finish third in the final team standings on Saturday at the 2010 Colonial Athletic Association Swimming and Diving Championships at George Mason's Jim McKay Natatorium.

JMU finished with 533 points to place third in the nine-team field. It was the highest finish for the Dukes at the CAA meet since placing second in 2002. The third-place ranking also continued a program progression in recent years from ninth in 2007 to seventh in 2008, fifth in 2009, and now third in 2010.

Head coach Samantha Smith commented on the showing, "I'm so impressed with their determination to be great session after session. We talked about being one unit all year long, and they were able to feed off each other's success. It was a great and fun meet from start to finish."

Towson captured its third consecutive swimming and diving title with 792 total points. UNC Wilmington was second with 633.5 points, followed by JMU (533), William and Mary (395.5), George Mason 373, Old Dominion (298.5), Delaware (245.5), Northeastern (179), and Drexel (109).

In the post-meet awards, JMU diving head coach Becky Benson was awarded CAA Diving Coach of the Year after JMU placed four divers in the top six in both the one-meter and three-meter boards. No other school placed three in the top 12 in either dive.

Individually, freshman Andrea Criscuolo (Point Pleasant, N.J./Point Pleasant) was ninth in the overall points with school records in the 100 backstroke and 200 butterfly, the latter in a NCAA B mark, as well as an All-CAA finish in the 100 fly. Smith commented, "Andrea was amazing! She had great control and fought hard. She is the fourth NCAA individual cut in JMU history and the first to do it as a freshman."

Junior Jessie Everett (Arlington, Va./Yorktown) placed 19^th in overall points with a pair of second-place, All-CAA finishes in the diving events.

Altogether, eight school records fell over the course of the four-day championship meet. The records included both backstroke races, both breaststroke events, both butterfly swims, and a pair of relay races. Each of the records in the breast and fly races stood for at least nine years, meaning that every current JMU record has now been set within the last three seasons.

Criscuolo highlighted the evening with her NCAA B mark in the 200 fly final with a time of 2:00.67, good for fifth place. The time shattered the previous mark of 2:03.03, set by A.C. Cruickshanks in 2000, by nearly two and a half seconds.

Freshman Anna Susko (Roxbury, N.J./Roxbury) opened the morning's first session with a record in the 200 back prelims, topping Christine Filak's 2006 record of 2:04.34. Susko then topped her time in the finals with a ninth-place finish in 2:01.65. Freshman Caroline Burns (Severna Park, Md./Severn School) was 13^th in 2:04.98 while her prelim time of 2:03.65 ranks second all-time at JMU. Junior Morgan McCarthy (New Castle, Del./St. Mark's) was 15^th in 2:05.14.

The other record on the final day came from junior Lisa Colapietro (Hollidaysburg, Pa./Hollidaysburg). Her time of 2:17.29 shattered the 2001 time of 2:19.40 by head coach Samantha Smith. She placed ninth overall, first in the consolation heat, but had the fourth-best overall time for the event.

Senior P.J. Naber (Chantilly, Va./Chantilly) earn