St. Mary's Swimming Ready to Host 2013 CAC Championships

St. Mary's City, Md. – Looking to splash around this weekend? Then head over to the Aquatics Center at the Michael P. O'Brien Athletics & Recreation Center for the 2013 Capital Athletic Conference Men's and Women's Swimming Championships on February 15-17. It is the eighth consecutive time that the St. Mary's College of Maryland Olympic-sized pool has served as the host site.

Come Thursday night, swimmers and fans from the five member institutions of the CAC – Frostburg State University, Marymount (Va.) University, University of Mary Washington, Salisbury University and York College of Pennsylvania – will descend on the St. Mary's City campus.

Last season, the Seahawk men snapped their three-year long streak of finishing third at the CAC Championships with a second-place finish. It was the first time since 2002 that St. Mary's had finished second at CACs. St. Mary's broke six school records in 2012 while senior Cameron Hedquist (Gaithersburg, Md./Gaithersburg) is back to defend his title in the 200 individual medley.

On the women's side, sophomore Brooke Raab (Parkton, Md./Hereford) is the reigning CAC Co-Women's Rookie of the Year while 15th-year head coach Andre Barbins picked up his fourth CAC Women's Swim Coach of the Year award after leading the Seahawks to second at the 2012 championships.

The St. Mary's women broke two school records a year ago while senior captain Kelly Heyde (Wilton, Conn./Wilton) notched three NCAA provisional times. Heyde enters this year's championships as the three-time defending champion in three events – the 200 individual medley, the 400 individual medley and the 200 butterfly.

Mary Washington comes into the 2013 championship meet as the defending champion on both the men's and women's sides as the Eagle women have captured all 22 CAC titles and the UMW men have won 12 straight.

The three-day championship meet will consist of two sessions each day, beginning with the preliminaries at 10:00 am and finals at 6:00 pm every day. The pool doors will open up 90 minutes before the start time of each session.

Tickets can be purchased at the door. Prices are $20 for a weekend pass, $10 for a day pass and $6 for a single session. College students from the six competing CAC institutions can get in for free with a valid college student ID card while children under 10 years old are free as well.

Recognition of all 34 seniors from all six schools will be done on Sunday, starting at 5:30 pm.

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