Swimming and Diving 2/19/2022 10:50:00 PM

Bronze for Watts and Two More School Records on Final Day of Swim & Dive PL Championships

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Two more school records and a bronze medal for sophomore Mimi Watts highlighted the fourth and final day of competition for American University swimming & diving at the Patriot League Championships. All four women's relays set school records this week.

Watts closed out the championships with three individual and four relay school records in addition to her two silver medals and one bronze. She was the first swimmer to medal at all for the Eagles since 2013. With 50 total points scored, Watts tied for sixth among all women's swimmers at the PL Championship.

Notable Results

In the final swimming event of the morning, Watts posted her sixth school record in finishing the 200 butterfly with the second-best time overall of 1:59.45. That bested her own school record of 1:59.71 from April, 2021. She fell just shy of that in the championship final, posting a third-place time of 1:59.54.
Bookending the day with school records, Watts was the leadoff leg for the women's 400 freestyle relay in the final event of the night. Teaming up with Eleanor Felton, Mallory Meister and Marissa Kleckner, the foursome took seventh in a school-record time of 3:26.82, well over a full second faster than the previous record from 2018.
As the leadoff leg of the relay, Watts recorded a 100 free time of 50.97 which is her personal best and second-best all-time at AU, just 0.15 off the current record set by Dory Isaacs in 2009.
Freshman Amaya Tomma, who was part of AU's school-record 400 medley relay earlier in the championships, placed 15th in the prelims of the 200 backstroke to advance to the consolation final.
Both Nick Buckley and Will Timme were alternate finalists in their events for the morning. Buckley swam a PR of 45.79 in the 100 freestyle, ranking as the sixth-fastest personal best in program history and moving him up that list.
Timme's time of 2:06.09 in the 200 breaststroke was also a PR and tied for the 12th all-time personal best in that event.
Meister's PR of 17:28.94 was good enough for 14th in the women's 1650 freestyle, and ranks ninth all-time among personal bests at AU.
Seamus Brown also placed 14th in the men's 1650 freestyle with a PR of 16:07.05 that ranks 11th-best all-time.
The foursome of Caleb Farris, Jonathan Quick, Will Deitch and Buckley teamed up for the final event of the week, the men's 400 free relay, and posted the ninth-best time in program history of 3:06.46.
Overall, the women's team placed seventh among the 10 Patriot League teams, while the men placed eighth. It was the highest finish for the women since 2015.

Thoughts from Coach Bartlett

"I am beyond proud of this primarily young team. Breaking several school records, scoring more team points than we have in a long time and moving up in the league was a very exciting end to a great season!"

Medals (3)

50 Freestyle, Silver: Mimi Watts, 22.72 (school record and NCAA "B" cut)
100 Butterfly, Silver: Mimi Watts, 52.86 (school record 52.81 in prelims, NCAA "B" cut)
200 Butterfly, Bronze: Mimi Watts, 1:59.54 (school record 1:59.45 in prelims)

School Records (9)