Aggies Complete Season at
NEC Championships200-yard freestyle relay team takes team best 8th place finish.
Landover, Md., February 19, 2005 – The second time around seemed to be a little bit more fun for the Aggie swim team at the 2005 Northeast Conference Swimming and Diving Championships.
After finishing at the bottom of the standings in last year’s championship, the first in school history, N.C. A&T showed some major improvement when matched against the best in the 13-member conference.
Behind a strong showing from the relay teams, the Aggies scored 91 points to finish 11th, just four points behind HBCU rival Florida A&M.
“I’m pleased with the how we performed as a team this weekend, just as I have been the entire season,” said coach Shawn Hendrix. “Our younger swimmers have given us a foundation that we have desired for a long time. Now, as they grow, expect us to get better and better each year. This performance is very big for our program.”
The top relay performance came from the 200-yard medley relay team of junior Andrea Perry, freshman Gia Wright, sophomore Asha el-Shair, and senior Asha Clinkscales, which took eighth place with a time of 1:55.67. The 22 points scored by the team is the most by the Aggies in a single event.
The foursome combined to do well in the 400-yard medley relay, taking ninth place and 18 points with a time of 4:16.61.
Freshman Shanell Thomas joined Clinkscales, Wright, and Perry to take ninth place and 18 points in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:50.01.
Perry was the lone individual to score for the Aggies, earning three team points with a 14th place finish in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:04.22.