St. Mary's senior Brie McDowell and Mary Washington sophomore Sarah Crockett both earned All-America recognition at the 2009 NCAA Division III Women's Swimming And Diving Championships.

McDowell, the 2007 and 2009 CAC Women's Swimmer of the Year, earned All-America honors three times this week, raising her career total to five All-America awards, as she placed ninth in the 100 backstroke, 10th in the 200 individual medley and fourth in the 200 backstroke. leading SMC to 22nd place in the team standings with 31 points.

Crockett gained All-America honors with a fifth-place finish in the 200 yard freestyle,helping UMW to a tie for 39th place with 14 team points. 

McDowell came in second in the consolation finals of the 200 individual medley event for a 10th-place overall finish.  She posted a time of 2:05.88 in the finals after taking 13th in the prelims in 2:06.10.  McDowell had entered the competition seeded fifth with her school record time of 2:05.48.

McDowell, who placed ninth in both the 100 backstroke and 200 backstroke at the 2007 NCAA Championships to earn her first All-America award, posted a school record-setting time of 56.23 in the 100 backstroke this week for her third All-America award.  She surpassing her own mark of 56.62 that she set just a little over a month ago at the CAC championships.  The senior captain had finished the prelims of the 100 back in ninth in 56.93.  McDowell had entered the competition seeded third in the event.

In Saturday's 200 backstroke, McDowell touched the wall fourth overall in 2:01.32, just over a second behind national champion Carolyn Barer of Kenyon (2:00.15).  McDowell finished second in the morning qualifying swim (2:00.32), beating Barer (2:00.47) but trailing Emory's Bess Pasternak (1:59.54), who ultimately finished third in the championship race.

The 2009 Capital Athletic Conference Women's Swimmer of the Year, McDowell earned her first All-America citation in 2007 as she finished ninth in the 100 back.  She currently holds 12 school records (8 individual, 4 relays).

Crockett gained All-America honors in the 200 yard freestyle, finishing in fifth place with a time of 1:51.52.  She broke the school and conference records in the event with a time of 1:51.32 in the morning preliminaries.

She also finished in 38th place in the 100 yard freestyle with a time of 52.70, just off her CAC and school record time. Crockett, who swam in three events at the championships.

McDowell's junior teammate, Rachel Hotchko, who is making her second consecutive trip to the NCAAs, also competed in the 50 freestyle event.  She placed 56th in 25:02 in the prelims but did not advance to finals as only the top 16 advance.  She also placed 23rd in the trials of the 100 butterfly (57.81).

Hotchko returns to the pool today in the 100 butterfly where she is seeded 19th with her school record time of 57.30.  She also competed in the 100 freestyle, placing 60th in the morning trials (54.49).  Hotchko currently holds six school records (2 individual, 4 relays).