Women's Swimming | Feb 13 | Swimming Earns Silver in 800 Relay on Wednesday at NECs EAST MEADOW, N.Y. -- The LIU Brooklyn women's swimming team won a silver medal on Wednesday night at the 2019 Northeast Conference Swimming and Diving Championships, setting three school records at the Nassau County Aquatic Center in the process. The abbreviated session consisted of just three events, the 200 medley relay, 1 meter diving and the 800 freestyle relay, where the Blackbirds earned a second place finish. The second event was the highlight for the Blackbirds, as freshman Amanda Peren broke the school record in the 200 freestyle, while the team set a new a new record in the 800 freestyle relay (7:36.23) for the second consecutive year. Peren led off for the Blackbirds, and finished her leg in 1:49.19, breaking her previous school record by over 1.5 seconds. "Not only did Amanda improve and put us off to a great start in the 800 free relay, but she broke the 1:50 barrier. That in itself is a huge accomplishment for her and our program going into a full day tomorrow. Everyone had a great start today and we can't wait to see what achievements we can earn tomorrow." She was followed in the race by freshman Amanda San Juan, sophomore Jeanne Touchette-McGowan and junior Noemie Lacroix-Moreau, who each had a sub-1:53 time in the event. The 'B' non-scoring relay included three freshmen, Lydia Amon (going a personal-best 1:55.56 in the leadoff leg), Mackenzie Burnett and Macie Madden along with second-year swimmer Kyleigh Barao, coing in 8th place overall at 7:50.23 In the 200 medley relay, the team of Peren, senior Mads Carrigan, Touchette-McGowan, Lacroix-Moreau, and senior Briana Vega came in at 1:44.09, which is easily the team's best time of the season, and good for fifth place in the the standings. Moreover, Peren's leadoff backstroke leg (26.28) surpassed her previous school mark of 26.58, by three-tenths of a second. The Blackbirds' non-scoring 'B' team in the 200 medley relay, the four sophomores (Alyssa Juris, Avery Vernon, Jacqueline Grabowski, Jodi Hawki) went 1:48.88 together. With two strong relay finishes, the Blackbirds ended day one with 62 team points, which is only four points out of third place heading into day two on Thursday. The defending champions, Bryant lead with 165 points. The four-day meet continues Thursday through Saturday, Feb. 16, starting each morning at 10:00 a.m. with preliminaries in six events. The finals each day will be held during the night session, beginning at 6:00 p.m. With four events on the schedule, the Blackbirds have seeded swimmers in the 500 freestyle (Amanda San Juan), 200 individual medley (Amanda Peren, Jeanne Touchette-McGowan), 50 freestyle (Briana Vega, Lydia Amon), before finishing off with the 200 free relay. FOLLOW LIVE Get more info about the event (including tickets) on the NEC Championship site: 2019 Women's Swimming & Diving NEC Championship Tournament Central Also, all four days of the 2019 Northeast Conference Swimming & Diving Championships will air live on NECFrontRow.