PHILADEPHIA – The women's swimming and diving ended its 2012-13 season last week at the Atlantic 10 Championships held at the Spire Institute in Geneva, Ohio. The Explorers were out to make a statement as they collectively brought home seven medals and broke nine school records in the four-day meet.
 
Senior Elizabeth Jordan led the way for La Salle, scoring a total of 51 points thanks to podium finishes in the 50 and 100 yard freestyles and a fourth place finish in the 100 yard breaststroke. Jordan got her meet started with a win in the 50 free (23.35) to edge out teammate Katie Snee by one one-hundredth of a second. The pair took the top two spots in the fastest event of the meet before earning silver and bronze medals in the 100 freestyle. This time, it was Snee who edged out Jordan by one one-hundredth of a second with a time of 50.74. Although Snee bested Jordan in finals, Jordan broke her own school record in her preliminary swim, touching in 50.32. That record will stand through the off-season but Snee has set herself up to take a real shot at it at the 2014 Atlantic 10 Championships.
 
Senior Jessica Simunek ended her collegiate swimming career the way every swimmer wants to end it – with three lifetime bests. She first broke her own school record in the 100 yard butterfly with her morning preliminary swim of 55.67. Simunek bettered that time in finals, touching in 55.55 for a fifth place finish. With not much rest following her 100 butterfly, Simunek came from behind to earn a silver medal in the 100 yard breaststroke in a time of 1:03.39. Her prelims time of 1:02.92 broke Jordan's school record by just a tenth of a second. Simunek swam her final race to a fourth place finish in the 200 yard breaststroke in a time of 2:15.57.
 
Sophomore Colleen Larkin built an enormous lead during the course of her 1650 yard freestyle victory but settled for a four-second win over Richmond's Emma Terwilliger. Larkin is now two-for-two in A10 1650 freestyle wins as she was the defending champion from last year's venue. Junior Greta Reichert snuck into a third place finish to earn bronze in a time of 16:51.32. In addition to her win, Larkin broke the school record in the 1000 yard freestyle going out in her mile. She flipped in 10:03.98 to replace Dina Dormer's record set in 1998. Larkin also took down Dormer's 500 yard freestyle record in a time of 4:53.54 to win the “B' final after a mediocre preliminary swim. In fact, Larkin's time would have earned her a bronze medal if she had qualified into the “A” final.
 
Sophomore Chelsey Curran dropped over two-and-a-half seconds from her lifetime best in the 200 yard backstroke, touching in a school record time of 2:02.51 in the morning preliminaries. She went on to place eighth overall in finals with a 2:03.25.
 
Curran, Jordan, Simunek, and Snee teamed up to break the school record in the 200 yard medley relay in 1:43.08 to miss a podium finish by just a meager one-hundredth of a second. Curran was replaced by fellow sophomore Amina Wilson on the record-breaking 400 yard medley relay which placed sixth in 3:47.13.
 
 As a team, the Explorers finished in fourth place with 442 points. Excluding a reduced spring training regiment, the women's swim and dive team is off until the beginning of the 2013 fall semester.