DANBURY, Conn. – The Sacred Heart University swimming team pulled out a 142-125 win over Western Connecticut, Saturday afternoon.  It was the final dual meet for the Pioneers who will compete in the Northeast Conference Championships at MIT, February 17-19.

Senior Katie Marshall (Cumberland, R.I.) paced Sacred Heart with a pair of first place finishes.  She won the 200-yard freestyle by hitting the wall in 2:01.91 and beat the field in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:00.97.

Freshman Hayley McGill (Old Lyme, Conn.) earned a first and second place finish in the freestyle sprints.  She took first in the 100-free with a time of 56.90 seconds and claimed second in the 50-free with a time of 26.66 seconds.  Classmate Liz Bennett (Fairbanks, Alaska) had a similar day with first and second place finishes in the 50 and 100-yard butterfly.  She paced the field in the 50-fly with a winning time of 28.15 seconds and came in second in the 100-fly, behind Marshall, with a time of 1:02.29.

The Pioneer rookies continued to have a successful day as freshman Nicole Del Nero (Spring Lake Heighs, N.J.) won the 100-yard individual medley with a time of 1:05.32.  She claimed a pair of second place finishes in the 50 and 200-yard backstrokes with times of 30.40 seconds and 2:16.50.  Fellow freshman Any Nunes (Seekonk, Mass.) won the 1000-free, coming in at 11:28.63.

Junior Laurie Casado (Queens, N.Y.) was victorious in the 200-yard breaststroke as she hit the wall in 2:33.91.  Del Nero, Casado, Bennett, and sophomore Rachel McGrath (Dorchester, Mass.) made up the winning 400-yard medley relay team that finished in 4:13.40.