Garcia’s NCAA Qualifying Dives, Relay Teams Highlight City Championships

Worcester, Mass. – Senior Eileen Garcia (New York, N.Y.) achieved the NCAA qualifying standard on both the 1-meter and 3-meter boards en route to her fourth consecutive Female Diver of the Meet Award at the 11th annual Worcester City Championships at Holy Cross' Hart Recreation Center Pool over the weekend.

In addition to Garcia, classmate Ryan Garr (Kingston, R.I.) was named Male Co-Swimmer of the Meet after winning three individual events and being a part of two victorious relay teams.

Garcia ensured herself of her fourth consecutive trip to the NCAA Championships this coming March with scores of 288.90 on the 1-meter and 281.10 on the 3-meter. The Diver of the Meet Award has even more significance for Garcia and Clark with this year's award being handed out in honor of former Cougar diver and All-American Beth Ferraro.

Garr, meanwhile, pushed his career win total at the City Championships to 17 – including 11 individual titles. Following wins in the 100-yard backstroke (53.54), 200-yard backstroke (1:56.18) and 200-yard IM (2:00.54), Garr ends his career at the event undefeated in the 100-yard and 200-yard backstrokes and three Male Swimmer of the Meet Awards.

Clark claimed a pair of relay titles on the men's side, collecting victories in the 200-yard freestyle (1:28.96) behind Garr, Clive Green (Portmore, Jamaica), Tim Sistare (Westford, Mass.) and Lamar Duffy (Pen Argyl, Pa.). That time was just .15 seconds off a meet record set by a WPI quartet in the 2009 event.

The Cougars' win in the 400-yard freestyle relay might have been the most exciting event of the Championships as Green, Duffy, Sistare and Garr posted a come-from-behind win (3:19.67) over WPI's Ben List, Andrew Lyberger, Cullen O'Brien and Ben Collins (3:20.42).

Clark will be back in action on Saturday when they visit the Coast Guard Academy on Saturday.