February 13, 2002
Shorewomen Go Undefeated
WC Handles CC Champs, 139-66

CHESTERTOWN, MD -- The Washington College women's swim team completed just the second undefeated season by a varsity women's team of any sport in school history with a 139-66 win over visiting Swarthmore this evening at Casey Swim Center. The Shorewomen finish with a dual meet record of 12-0 overall and 7-0 in the Centennial Conference, while the Garnet Tide, the defending conference champions, finish at 8-2 and 5-2.

The Shorewomen won what was expected to be a close meet by a surprisingly wide margin, taking first place in all but one event on the evening. Two Washington swimmers recorded NCAA "B Cut" times and one broke a school record as the Shorewomen joined the 1974-75 women's tennis team (5-0) as the only unbeaten women's varsity teams in school history.

Sophomore Margaret Klag (Silver Spring, MD/Sherwood) had an outstanding meet. She won the 200 breaststroke in an NCAA "B Cut" time of 2:26.31 and broke her own school record in the event. She also swam a personal-best and WC season-best time of 25.55 in the 50 freestyle to win a close race in which fewer than two seconds separated her from the sixth place finisher.

In the meet's opening event, the 400 medley relay, Klag joined senior Vanessa Makarewicz (Manchester, CT/Manchester) and juniors Julie Meirs (Cream Ridge, NJ/Peddie) and Sarah Cooper (Wilmington, DE/Tatnall) to finish first in a pool-record time of 4:07.64.

Juniors Stacy Sines (Wilmington, DE/Mt. Pleasant) and Pam Vasquez (Tegucigalpa, Honduras/Delcampo Institute) each won two individual events. Sines won the 200 freestyle in an NCAA "B Cut" and WC season-best time of 1:56.47 and took first in the 100 freestyle in a WC season-best time of 55.10. Vasquez, meanwhile, captured the distance events by winning the 500 freestyle in 5:23.85 and the 1000 freestyle in 11:00.37.

Sines and Vasquez also swam the bookend legs of the 400 freestyle relay that finished the meet with a first-place finish in a WC season-best time of 3:46.83. Cooper and freshman Ana Prado (La Coruna, Spain/Tirso) swam the middle two legs.

Freshman Samantha Shaffer (Elizabethtown, PA/Elizabethtown) added a victory in the 200 individual medley, posting a personal-best time of 2:16.67 that made her the fourth-fastest Shorewoman swimmer in history in the event. Meirs accounted for WC's other victory by winning the 200 butterfly in 2:13.71.

The Shorewomen also recorded three second-place finishes in the meet. Shaffer was second in the 100 breaststroke in 2:32.85, Cooper was second in the 200 individual medley in 2:18.27, and freshman Emily Rawson (Derwood, MD/Richard Montgomery) was second in the 200 butterfly in 2:14.64.

Washington finishes its dual meet season having won 24 consecutive meets. Prior to this season, Gettysburg had posted undefeated Centennial Conference dual meet records every year since the conference's first season in 1993-1994. The Shorewomen posted a 103-102 win over Gettysburg in the season opener on November 3.

Next up for the Shorewomen is the Centennial Conference Championship Meet, to be held February 22-24 at Franklin & Marshall College.

EVENT RESULTS