February 27, 1996

Release # S053 Contact: Adam Levin Sports Information Director Phone #: (207) 786-6411

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Bates Women Swimmers Qualify for NCAA Championships

LEWISTON, Maine -- This past weekend at the New England Division III Championships at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., the Bates College women's swim team qualified two swimmers for the NCAA Division III Championships. Senior Melissa Sander of Richmond, Calif., and sophomore Denby Johnson of Chanhassen, Minn., will make the trip to nationals March 14-16 at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga.

Sander returns to the NCAA Championships in the 100- and 200-yard butterfly, events in which she earned All-America honors last year. She finished the 100-yard race in a time of 59.9 seconds, good for second place and All-New England honors. She swam the 200 in 2:14.18.

Johnson is a first-time qualifier for the nationals, recording a school-record time of 54.36 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle, good for sixth place at New Englands.

As a team, the Bobcats finished eighth of 32 teams at the New England Championships. Six school records were broken; by Sander in the 50 freestyle (24.15) and 200 freestyle (1:58.29); by Johnson in the 100 freestyle; by the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Sander, Johnson, senior Beth Sawyer of Rochester, Minn., and first-year swimmer Emily Preissler of West Hartford, Conn. (1:41.62); by the 200-yard medley relay team of Johnson, Sawyer, Sander and junior Jen Weiers of Indiana, Pa., (1:55.05); and by the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Johnson, Preissler, Sawyer and Sander (3:41.63).

Coach Dana Mulholland was pleased with his team's performance. "It was an outstanding meet for us," he said. "Our goal was to finish in the top 10 and we did. We were three points ahead of MIT going into the the last event (the 400 freestyle relay), so we needed to beat them to stay in eighth. Not only did we beat them, but we set a school record and just missed qualifying for nationals [by .64 seconds]."

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