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UR swimming wins seventh-consecutive A-10 title

The Richmond Spiders swimming team finished off their seventh-consecutive Atlantic 10 Conference title Saturday night in Buffalo, N.Y., winning by 202.5 points over second-place Xavier.

Freshman Nicole LePere set an A-10 record in the 200 back, becoming the only swimmer to break an individual record in the meet.

Senior Jessica Witt was named the Most Outstanding Performer for the second time in her career (2006), while third-year head coach Matt Barany earned his third-straight Coach of the Year honor.

The Spiders' 690.5 points is their fewest during this record-setting run over the last seven seasons, while their margin of victory is the narrowest since beating St. Bonaventure by 167.5 points in 2002 to win their first title.

Richmond entered the meet with just 13 swimming and no divers, while most teams brought 18 or 19 swimmers to Buffalo.

The Spiders got things rolling on the final day in the morning preliminaries with LePere racing to the wall in an Atlantic 10 record 2:01.08, breaking the eight-year record of 2:08.11 held by Virginia Tech's Erin Millfeit in 2000.

LePere could not hold off Duquesne's Kyla Favret in the finals and took home the silver in a time of 2:02.25. Beth Ann Platt captured the bronze (2:02.83), Alex Helland finished fourth (2:02.84), Kylie Francis took sixth (2:04.56) and Elizabeth Hailand was ninth (2:05.41).

The 200 back saw Richmond capture 70 total points and all but slam the door on the competition.

Witt ended her A-10 championship career by winning the 200 fly and helping the 400 free relay to a gold medal. Witt's time in the 200 fly was 2:02.80, with LePere capturing another medal – the bronze – in 2:05.14.

Sophomore Katie Sieben was edged out by another Duke Melissa Johnson in the 100 free and took the silver in a time of 51.46. The two had similar 51.68 times in the morning preliminaries and had a swim-off to determine the top-seed heading into the finals, which Sieben won.

Junior Lauren Beaudreau returned to the gold-medal platform for the third-consecutive season in the 200 breast, winning by nearly three seconds in a time of 2:15.73. Cara Smaniotto was sixth in the event (2:21.30).

With the championship already decided before the meet's final event, the 400 relay of Beaudreau, Helland, Witt and Sieben helped the Spiders capture 40 more points in taking the gold. The team out-touched Duquesne at the wall by .66 seconds.

Richmond won the championship with 690.5 points, followed by a program-best second-place finish from Xavier (488). Duquesne (470) was third, while Massachusetts (420.5) was fourth, Fordham (414) was fifth, St. Bonaventure (308) was sixth, La Salle (225) was seventh, Rhode Island (215) was eighth, Saint Louis (214) was ninth and George Washington (189) was 10th.