The William & Mary women's swimming team will look to regain the conference title this week at the Colonial Athletic Association Championships, looking to win its fourth championship all-time and third of the last five seasons.  Action at the Christiansburg Aquatics Center in Christiansburg, Va., will begin on Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 19, at 4 p.m., and continue through Saturday night.  The meet can be streamed live on FloSwimming with a FloPro account, and live results can be found on TribeAthletics.com and the Meet Mobile app.

Championship Notes
Live Stream ($$)
Live Results
Championships Headquarters

Schedule
Wednesday, Feb. 19
Finals - 4 p.m.
200 medley relay, 800 free relay

Thursday, Feb. 20
Prelims - 10 a.m.
500 free, 200 IM, 50 free

Finals - 6 p.m.
500 free, 200 IM, 50 free, 200 free relay

Friday, Feb. 21
Prelims - 10 a.m.
400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back

Finals - 6 p.m.
400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back, 400 medley relay

Saturday, Feb. 22
Prelims - 10 a.m.
200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly

Afternoon heats - 3 p.m.
1,650 free (all but top-eight)

Finals - 6 p.m.
1,650 free (top-eight), 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly, 400 free relay

SAAC Donations
This school year, the CAA's Student-Athlete Advisory Council is collecting donations at each of the league's championships of items to be donated to local service organizations.  For this week's swimming & diving championships, the SAAC is asking for donations of canned goods and toiletries, which can be dropped off at a collection box at the front of the aquatics center.

Scouting the Tribe
W&M is 6-4 on the season, and closed the year with six wins in a row.  The Tribe also won the mid-season West Virginia Invitational by more than 200 points over the host Mountaineers of the Big 12, just the second invitational win in program history.

Scouting the Conference
In addition to W&M, teams from James Madison, Northeastern, UNCW, Towson, Drexel, and Delaware will seek to win the conference crown this week.  JMU has won the team race each of the past two seasons, and Towson is also among the favorites to win after a strong campaign so far in 2019-20.  The Tigers won seven of eight championships between 2007-15.

Swimmer of the Meet Race
One of the more interesting subplots every year is the competition for Outstanding Swimmer of the Championships.  James Madison senior Bonnie Zhang won the award last year, after winning both the 100 and 200 free as well as all three free relays, while Northeastern senior Megan Clark was the winner of the award two years ago with a sweep of the 50, 100, and 200 free.  Top contenders this year include both of those women, as well as Drexel senior Alexa Kutch (the CAA record-holder in both the 100 and 200 back) and junior Gab Rudy (top-seed in the 200 IM and the 100 breast).  For Towson, senior Megan Cowan is the top seed in both fly events, and for the Tribe, junior Megan Bull (Hillsborough, N.J.) is the top seed in the 500 free, 400 IM, 1,650 free, and ranked third in the 200 free.

Looking for the Matching Set
The William & Mary women are looking to regain the Colonial Athletic Association title for the fourth time in program history, after winning the championship in 2007, 2016, and 2017.  The current seniors were freshmen the last time the Tribe won.

Last Win Was One to Remember
That 2017 crown was certainly one to remember.  The Tribe entered the final session down 71 points, and stormed back to win the team championship.  That was the biggest final-day deficit ever overcome in conference history.

Always in Contention
W&M has finished either first or second each of the last four seasons, matching the program record originally set between 2006-09.  Other than those two stretches, the only other times that the Tribe has finished either first or second was in 1989 (second) and 2001 (also second).

It's Not How You Start ...
The W&M women finished the season 6-4 overall in dual meets, and won each of the last six meets.  After narrow losses to D-III national power Johns Hopkins, East Carolina, Towson, and James Madison to start the year, the Tribe started winning against UNCW and Delaware and never stopped, also picking up victories over VMI, Old Dominion, Davidson, and George Washington.

Mid-Season Form
The Tribe's winning streak doesn't just include dual meets.  At the mid-season West Virginia Invitational, W&M won the 10-team meet with 1,615.5 points over West Virginia (Big 12), Villanova (Big East), Kenyon (D-III national contender), Old Dominion (C-USA), Carnegie Mellon (another D-III national contender), and diving contingents from Navy, James Madison, Massachusetts, and St. Bonaventure.  It was just the second mid-season invitational win in school history, joining the 2015-16 team won the Bucknell Invitational en route to the CAA Championship that spring.

Going West
Sophomore Missy Cundiff (Leesburg, Va.) earned her first Olympic Trials berth over the summer, qualifying for the 50m free in Omaha later this year.

Bull-ing to the Record
At the U.S. Winter Nationals in December, Megan Bull broke W&M's school record in both the 200m free and the 400m free.

Tough to Beat
Missy Cundiff is 11-1 in the 50 free this season, but is undefeated by other swimmers.  Her only "loss" came via a false start in the dual meet against Davidson.  She is ranked third in the conference descending order list, with a best time of 22.90 this year.

It's Not How You Start, Part Two
W&M broken a pair of Rec Center pool records and dual-meet records in the Senior Day win over George Washington.  In the 50 free, Missy Cundiff swam 23.07 to break the records of 23.14 set by Megan Howard '15 in 2014.  Later, she teamed with Inez Olszewski (New York, N.Y.), Katie Stevenson (Wilton, Conn.), and Anna Kenna (Chantilly, Va.) to break the pool and dual-meet records in the 200 free relay in 1:34.81, beating the 1:34.84 time set back in 2014 as well.

And the award goes to ...
W&M won four awards from the Colonial Athletic Association this season.  Junior Megan Bull was named the CAA Swimmer of the Week on Oct. 8, and freshman Maura Graff (Henrico, Va.) won that award on Feb. 11 as well.  Meanwhile, Grace Tramack (Palo Alto, Calif.) was named the Rookie Swimmer of the Month for November after a strong performance at the West Virginia Invitational, and Elizabeth Intihar (Columbus, Ohio) was named Rookie Swimmer of the Month for the first month of the spring semester after leading W&M to a 3-0 dual-meet streak.

Off to a Great Start
The freshman class has been a huge part of the Tribe's success this season, accounting for five of the top-10 and eight of the top-16 sports on the team scoring list.  Seven of the eight have won at least two races this season, combining for 20 of the team's 73 wins.  Perhaps most telling, all eight of the freshmen have made the roster for the conference squad.

20 for 20
Megan Bull has won a career-best 20 races this season, tied for 12th-most in a single season since 1990.  That is just the 16th time since 1998-99 that a W&M swimmer has won 20+ races in a year.  Bull is now tied for 10th in school history with 45 career wins, matching the total won by Kelly Reitz '07.

A Grand Season
Megan Bull also surpassed the 1000-point milestone this season, and now ranks ninth in school history with 1,042.25 points.  Her season total of 368.75 is a career-best, and ranks her 13th all-time on the single-season list.  If she can reach 400 points, she'll be just the sixth women's swimmer to do so.