For Immediate Release: February 16, 2011
Contact: Terrence Lollie (sports@binghamton.edu)
Phone: 607-777-2956

Binghamton women's swimming and diving look to turn heads at America East Championships
Bearcats seek first top-three finish since 2002-03

America East Championship Central
America East preview
Schedule of Events

VESTAL, N.Y. -- The Binghamton women's swimming and diving team will travel to the Baltimore-area this week to compete in the four-day America East Championships, Feb. 17-20. The first session of the seven-team event will kickoff on Thursday, Feb. 17 at 5 p.m. and continue on through Sunday, Feb. 20. The championships will be hosted by UMBC at the Germantown Indoor Swim Center in Germantown, Maryland.

The women's program has not seen as much success as the men, finishing sixth last season, but this year's team is motivated to change that. Only once have the women finished better than fifth at the America East Championships in its ten year history on the Division I level. In 2002-03 the women finished third, led by now assistant coach Yun Qu. The 2011 edition of the Bearcat women are poised to prove their preseason prediction of fifth was a bit misguided.

BU finished its dual meet season with a 6-3-1 record, including a victory over America East rival Vermont as well as a tie with Stony Brook in the season finale. The women notched its first back-to-back winning records since the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons.

Leading the Bearcat resurgence are senior Amanda Ciccone and sophomore Tiffany Siu. Each earned finalist honors at last season's America East Championships. Ciccone swam to a fifth place finish, on her way to a school-record in the 200 IM with a time of 2:06.74. Siu touched seventh in the 200 fly with a time of 2:06.05.

Binghamton is also looking forward to winning significant points on the boards, with juniors Jenna Easton and Morgan Neal as well as senior Liz Esposito coming off finalist finishes in 2010. Easton finished fourth on the meter board and sixth on the three-meter board while Neal took fifth on the three-meter board and sixth in the meter dive. Esposito finished eighth on the three-meter board.

Point Scorers from 2010 AE Championships: Ciccone, Easton, Neal, Siu, Esposito, Melissa Lindahl, Brittany Detlef, Olivia Baczek and Danielle Gallo.

The following is a list of events (not in order) with Binghamton's top times of the 2010-11 season among the America East, Binghamton's swimmer personal best, top America East qualifier and America East record:

50 Free:
4. Amanda Ciccone: 24.11 (23.76)
AE top qualifier: Maria McIntyre, Boston U. - 23.73 (defending champ)
AE Championship record: Maria McIntyre, Boston U. - 23.17 (2010)

100 Free:
8. Amanda Ciccone: 52.42 (52.20)
AE top qualifier: Abbey McKenney, UMBC - 50.98 (defending champ)
AE Championship record: Jessica Ellis-Alcaide, New Hampshire - 49.97 (2009)

200 Free:
9. Amanda Ciccone - 1:53.19 (same)
AE top qualifier: Lauren Drake, Boston U. - 1:51.23
AE Championship record: Colleen Clark, Vermont - 1:47.51 (2009)

500 Free:
13. Tiffany Siu: 5:04.54 (5:03.46)
AE top qualifier: Amanda Schmitz, Boston U. - 4:54.16 (defending champ)
AE Championship record: Colleen Clark, Vermont - 4:49.04 (2009)

1650 Free:
16. Tricia Alejandro: 18:12.47 (same)
17. Karissa Gorman: 18:15.68 (same)
AE top qualifier: Meaghan Grimes, Boston U. - 16:44.62
AE Championship record: Meghan Sackett, UMBC 16:49.39 (2006)

100 Back:
15. Olivia Baczek: 59.51 (same)
AE top qualifier: Amy Perrault, New Hampshire - 56.32 (three-time defending champ)
AE Championship record: Amy Perrault, New Hampshire - 55.14 (2009)

200 Back:
18. Olivia Baczek: 2:08.26 (same)
20. Melissa Lindahl: 2:09.05 (same)
AE top qualifier: Amy Perrault, New Hampshire - 2:01.26 (two-time defending champ)
AE Championship record: Amy Perrault, New Hampshire - 1:58.59 (2010)

100 Breast:
13. Danielle Gallo: 1:07.92 (1:07.12)
AE top qualifier: Allison Nahin, New Hampshire - 1:03.50 (two-time defending champ)
AE conference record: Allison Nahin, New Hampshire - 1:03.08
(2010)

200 Breast:
18. Danielle Gallo: 2:28.90 (2:26.61)
AE top qualifier: Kristen Connors, Boston U. - 2:18.36
AE Championship record: Shannon Daly, New Hampshire - 2:14.8 (2006)

100 Butterfly:
5. Amanda Ciccone: 56.44 (56.23)
AE top qualifier: Amy Perrault, New Hampshire - 54.71
AE conference record: Emily Munday, Boston U. 53.83 (2010)

200 Butterfly:
5. Tiffany Siu: 2:04.11 (same)
AE top qualifier: Amanda Schmitz, Boston U. - 1:59.83 (defending champ)
AE Championship record: Yun Qu, Bing. - 1:59.86 (2002)

200 IM:
6. Amanda Ciccone: 2:07.57 (2:06.74)
AE top qualifier: Amy Perrault, New Hampshire - 2:06.19 (defending champ)
AE Championship record: Eve Kinsella, Boston U. - 2:02.22 (2009)

400 IM:
3. Tiffany Siu: 4:26.06 (same)
AE top qualifier: Amanda Schmitz, Boston U. - 4:18.33 (defending champ)
AE Championship record: Amanda Schmitz, Boston U. - 4:17.82 (2010)

One-Meter Dive:
7. Morgan Neal: 255.07 (same)
AE top qualifier: Serra Czapla, Stony Brook - 329.50
AE Championship record: Tess Waresmith, Boston U. - 539.90 (2009)

Three-Meter Dive:
14. Jenna Easton: 223.00 (233.05)
AE top qualifier: Serra Czapla, Stony Brook - 305.48 (defending champ)
AE Championship record: Tess Waresmith, Boston U. - 575.60 (2009)

200 Free Relay:
5. Binghamton: 1:39.57
AE top qualifier: UMBC - 1:34.85
AE Championship record: Boston U. - 1:32.56 (2010)

400 Free Relay:
5. Binghamton: 3:35.06
AE top qualifier: UMBC - 3:25.99
AE Championship record: Boston U. - 3:23.53 (2010)

800 Free Relay:
6. Binghamton: 7:46.82
AE top qualifier: Boston U. - 7:30.13
AE Championship record: New Hampshire - 7:21.11 (2010)

200 Medley Relay:
5. Binghamton: 1:49.63
AE top qualifier: UMBC - 1:44.15
AE Championship record: New Hampshire - 1:42.06 (2010)

400 Medley Relay:
4. Binghamton: 3:56.36
AE top qualifier: Boston U. - 3:48.69
AE Championship record: New Hampshire - 3:44.72 (2010)

2010-11 America East Preseason Poll

1. Boston Univ. (6) - 36
2. UMBC (1) - 31
3. New Hampshire - 26
4. Vermont - 20
5. Binghamton - 15
6. Stony Brook - 12
7. Maine - 7