NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. – Senior Sarah Barber (Meriden) won the New England championship in the 1,000 yard freestyle event for the fourth straight year and was one of three Eastern Connecticut State University women to gain All-New England honors three times each at the 29th Annual New England Intercollegiate Swimming and Diving Association (NEISDA) Division II-III Championships which concluded Sunday night at the Tripp Athletic Center pool on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

As a team, Eastern collected 408 points and recorded its highest finish ever by placing sixth among 21 teams which recorded points. The Warriors were second among the five Little East Conference institutions, trailing only Keene State College. Keene, which won the conference championship in December, ended Division II Bentley College’s six-year stronghold on the title with an 82-point win.

Barber earned 70 of Eastern’s points to give her a final career total of 296 points in individual events in the New England Championship – an accomplishment which makes her the 2008 recipient of the Kay Fromer Award. The award is presented to the senior swimmer who has compiled the highest point total in her career in the New England Championship Meet. Barber becomes the program’s second recipient of the award in six years, following fellow Meriden native Amy Golas in 2003. Golas, a five-time New Engalnd champion in the butterfly and freestyle events and a current Eastern assistant coach, was presented with the award as a senior in 2003. Entering this year’s meet, Barber and Golas each had 226 career points.

Seeded first, Barber recorded a three-second win over Bentley College senior Arden Brust to win the 1,000 freestyle Saturday in a season-best time of 10:43.63 – giving her four New England titles in that event in as many tries and a total of eight New England championships in her four-year career. Barber concluded her career Sunday by placing second in the 1,650 yard freestyle in a season-best time of 18:01.30.

Seeded second in the 500 yard freestyle, Barber swam her fastest time of the year in the preliminaries Friday morning, but placed second in the finals to Keene State College sophomore and University of Connecticut transfer Jackie Foster in the final. Barber bettered her season-best in the final with a time of 5:17.95, but top-seeded Foster cut 12 seconds off her time in the preliminaries to register a winning time of 5:10.38.

Barber concludes her career by winning eight New England championships and achieving All-New England honors each year in the 500, 1,000 and 1,650. She won the 500 freestyle as a freshman in 2005 and placed second each of the last three years, and had captured three New England titles in the 1,650 freestyle.

In addition to Barber, sophomore Jessica Wilson (Torrington) and freshman Amy Arisco (Wallingford) gained All-New England status three times over the weekend. Wilson repeated All-New England honors from a year ago in the 50 and 100 yard breaststroke, and added the 200 yard breaststroke this year; Arisco, who missed the first half of this season due to illness, earned All-New England status in the 50 and 100 yard butterfly and in the 100 yard individual medley.

Wilson placed fifth in the 50 breaststroke (33:56) Friday, fourth in the 100 breaststroke (1:12.85) Saturday, and fifth in the 200 breaststroke (2:39.20) Sunday. Arisco swam to a sixth-place finish in the 100 butterfly (1:03.44) Friday, was fifth in the 50 butterfly (28:31) Saturday, and second in the 100 individual medley Sunday in a time of 1:04.89. Arisco broke her own program record with a time of 1:05.41 in Sunday’s preliminaries, then bettered that in the final. Arisco’s time of 1:02.43 in Friday’s preliminaries of the 100 butterfly represented a personal-best. Her time in Saturday’s final of the 50 butterfly was also a personal-best, breaking her previous PR established during Saturday morning’s preliminaries.

Barber, Wilson and Arisco were joined by first-year sophomore Kelsy Doheny (West Haven) on four relays which established new program standards. Friday, the foursome broke the 200 yard freestyle and 400 yard medley relay records, combined Saturday to create a new program mark in the 800 yard freestyle relay, and wrapped up the meet with a record-setting time in the 400 yard freestyle relay. The 200 freestyle relay was fourth in a time of 1:46.16 that broke a six-year-old record; the 400 medley relay was fifth in a time of 4:21.67, but broke the former program record with a time of 4:20.50 in the preliminaries; the 800 freestyle relay was fifth in a time of 8:23.07 which smashed the three-year old record by nearly ten seconds, and the 400 freestyle relay was also fifth. That relay broke the program record in the preliminaries, and improved on that with a time of 3:49.78 in the final.

The team’s five relays collected 160 points. Individually behind Barber, Arisco netted 59 points and Wilson 58. Doheny added 22 points, sophomore Sarah Dombrowski (Southington) and freshman Abby Bolduc (Windsor) 14 each, sophomore Maureen Cop (Southington) ten, and sophomore Carol Ann Smith (Newtown) one. Cop and Doheny both advanced to the finals in three events, Dombrowski and Bolduc in two and Smith in one.

The top six individuals in each event and top three relays are accorded All-New England honors.

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