Feb. 24, 2005

Results

BROWN DEER, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's swimming and diving team won the final three events of day two's finals to storm back into title contention at the 2005 Horizon League Championship Thursday night in Brown Deer, Wis. The Panthers sit third, 15 points out of first place, in a heated race for the championship.

UW-Green Bay leads the way with 291 points, while Wright State is second with 278 and UWM is just two points back with 276.

Junior Erin Blemberg dominated the three-meter diving event to net her first league championship and eclipse the school record by 31.75 points. She tallied 480.60 points in taking the top two spots with sophomore teammate Crystal Szymanski. Szymanski was the only other diver over 400 points in the event, notching 418.00 to outdistance herself from third place by over 30 points. Freshman Megan McLoone also competed in the event finals, tallying a score of 338.65 for seventh place.

Milwaukee's stellar finish began with sophomore Lindsay Caldwell in the 50 freestyle. After breaking the school and league record with a leg on the 200 free relay on Wednesday, she achieved a NCAA Provisional 'B' cut for the third time in two days with her first career league title. Caldwell touched the wall in 23.47 for the win, while freshman Kristin Skiba also competed in the finals, placing 13th in 25.04.

The duo also capped the evening, swimming with the league champion 400 medley relay. Joined by junior Julie Olson and sophomore Heather Sawatzki, the relay swam a school-record time of 3:51.93, missing the league record by 0.67 seconds. Olson, Caldwell and Sawatzki were all part of the previous school record relay, which posted a time of 3:54.50 last season.

UWM's eighth broken record over the first two days of the meet came in the 500 free, where freshman Emma McKeith eclipsed the freshman mark of 5:07.85, with her time of 5:07.48. She had broken the freshman and team record in the 1000 free on Wednesday. Senior Cathy Honeyager paced three Panthers in the consolation heat of the event, taking 10th overall in 5:10.63. Sophomore Susan Harmsen placed 14th in 5:13.96, while junior Emily Holcomb placed 16th in 5:19.86.

In the 200 individual medley, Sawatzki was the team's top finisher, taking eighth in the championship heat with a time of 2:12.33. Junior Patricia Frank competed in the consolation heat, taking 14th overall in 2:14.02.

Day three of the League Championships gets underway at 10:30 a.m. with the preliminaries of the 400 IM, 100 butterfly, 200 free, 100 breaststroke and 100 backstroke. One-meter diving will be run at 4 p.m., while finals get underway at 6:30 p.m. and finish up with the 800 free relay.