Saint Michael’s College women’s swimming & diving senior Lindsay McNall (Colchester, Vt./Colchester) added another first in program history to her list of accomplishments for the 2016-17 season, being named the Northeast-10 Conference Women’s Swimmer of the Year on Wednesday.
McNall put together a historic season as a senior, first landing three all-conference finishes at the NE10 Championship before becoming the initial Purple Knight swimmer to ever qualify for the NCAA Championship. At the national meet, she also earned the first Collegiate Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) All-America finish by a Saint Michael’s swimmer or diver. Last week, McNall became the first NE10 Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence Award winner in program annals.
McNall led the team in total (27), individual (15) and relay (12) wins this winter, finishing with 102 total victories for her career. She won multiple events at eight meets during the season, highlighted by claiming six triumphs while helping the Purple Knights capture the State University of New York at Potsdam’s North Country Invitational on Nov. 18-19. In addition to that team win, the Purple Knights started the year 5-0 during dual meets, their best in 21 seasons, ultimately finishing 5-3 for their third consecutive season of five-plus victories. That feat had last been turned between the 2000-01 and 2002-03 campaigns.
While competing in seven events during the Feb. 16-19 NE10 Championship, McNall played a hand in 173 of her team’s 266 points, the most garnered by the Purple and Gold squad since 2008-09. She was a perfect 3-for-3 on landing all-conference finishes – necessitating placing among the top two – during her individual events en route to setting at least one school record each day of the meet.
McNall, who will graduate with her name on eight school records, won the 100-yard backstroke at NE10s by 2.44 seconds, nearly double the distance between the second- and eighth-place finishers (1.36), and the 200 back by 3.82 seconds; the second- through fifth-place finishers were separated by 3.5 ticks. Her 200 back time of 2:00.03 was not only an NE10 Championship record by 0.55 seconds, but was believed to be third in conference history. McNall also took second in the 100-yard butterfly.
At the NCAA Championship in Birmingham, Ala., McNall competed on March 10 and 11. Her opening day featured a 16th-place trials showing that qualified her for the evening finals, where she took 15th to nab All-America status. McNall had entered the race seeded 18th across Division II. The next day, she claimed 21st during 200 back trials to miss returning for the finals by 1.33 seconds.
In addition to becoming the first NE10 Swimmer of the Year, NE10 Scholar-Athlete Excellence Award Winner, CSCAA All-American, and NCAA Championship swimmer in program history, McNall was a five-time NE10 All-Conference finisher, three-time NE10 champion and three-time New England Intercollegiate Swimming & Diving Association (NEISDA) champion during her career. Thanks to her work in both the pool and the classroom, she was two-time NE10 Academic All-Conference and 2014 CSCAA Individual Scholar All-America.
News courtesy of St. Michael’s Athletics.