Feb. 24, 2002

PITTSBURGH--The Pittsburgh women's swimming and diving team finished in fifth place at the Big East Championships at the Nassau Aquatic Center in Uniondale, N.Y., thanks to an all-Big East performance by Emily Colley on the third and final day.

The Panthers had their best finish at the conference meet since 1999, when they finished fourth. In each of the past two seasons, Pittsburgh had finished sixth under head coach Marian Cassidy Keen.

Colley (Pace, Fla./Pace) earned the all-Big East honors by finishing third in the 1650 freestyle with a personal-best time of 16:35.03. It also qualified her for the NCAA Championships' b-cut as she finished twenty seconds behind Villanova's Maddy Crippen, who set a meet record with 16:15.07.

Rubi Cisneros (Monterrey, Mexico/Monterrey) finished in 11th place, touching the wall at 17:03.78 and Emily Kaszycki (Greensburg, Pa./Greater Latrobe) was two spots behind with a time of 17:15.72.

In the 200 backstroke race, another Panther, sophomore Carolyne Savini (Egg Harbour Twp., N.J./Holy Spirit) just missed out on all-Big East honors by finishing fourth. She had an NCAA b-cut time of 2:01.74, which broke her own school record, set earlier this year at the Pittsburgh Invitational. Notre Dame swept the top three spots with Kelly Hecking taking first with a time of 1:57.70. Senior Karen Thibodeau (Waterloo, Ontario/Bluevale Collegiate) finished in 13th place with a time of 2:03.61.

The 200 breaststroke and 200 butterfly events were disappointing for the Panthers, as just one swimmer made the consolations in each event with no Panther qualifying for the finals. Kristina DeWitt (Houston, Texas/Stratford) touched the wall in 11th place in the 200 breast with a time of 2:20.93, just 1.2 seconds away from tying the school record. In the 200 fly, Jennifer Koch (Cincinnati, Ohio/Mother of Mercy) finished 13th with a time of 2:06.23 after swimming a 2:04.36 in prelims, a personal best.

The 400 freestyle relay team of Jenny Livingstone (Endwell, N.Y./Union-Endicott), Savini, Lindsay Weaverling (Lansing, Kan./Leavenworth) and Thibodeau finished in sixth place to end the meet.

FINAL STANDINGS -- BIG EAST WOMEN'S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

1.  Notre Dame        797
2.  Rutgers           522.5
3.  Miami             488
4.  Virginia Tech     405
5.  PITTSBURGH        369
6.  Villanova         359
7.  Connecticut       213.5
8.  Syracuse          187
9.  West Virginia     166
10. Boston College     98
11. St. John's         78
12. Seton Hall         62
13. Georgetown         43