The St. John’s swimming teams have spent this entire season withtheir backs against the wall. That being said, it comes as nosurprise that’s the way the Red Storm women capped their remarkableturnaround at the ECAC championships from Feb. 26-29.

Entering the final day of action in fourth place, the St. John’swomen rallied to a second-place finish out of 29 teams at theEastern College Athletic Conference championships inPittsburgh.

“It was a lot of fun,” said junior Christine Myers, noting thatit was a more relaxed atmosphere than the Big East Championships.”We’re very close as a team.”

Boston College finished first as the University of New Hampshire– which won the ECAC Championships last season — finished firstbehind the Storm.

“It was unbelievable,” Myers said. “We were really pumpedbecause we had a chance of receiving an award.”

Senior Elizabeth Malinowski led the attack for the Storm (403.5points), placing second in the 1650 freestyle with a time of17:25.99. Malinowski also joined Laura Nuudi, Darinka Savcic andMaya Ziolkowski on the 800-medley relay team that finished fourthoverall at 7:50.15.

Individually, Caitlin Ranney captured fourth (52.99) in the100-yard freestyle. Gosia Rodzik broke a St. John’s record in the100-yard butterfly at 58.07, placing fourth at the championshipsand earning the team 15 points.

The 400-yard free relay team of Myers, Nuudi, Ziolkowski andRanney came in third (3:34.07) in the last event at thechampionships.

The men’s team entered only one competitor and finished 25th.Senior Pawel Sokolowski, SJU’s lone male representative was able tosteal the show, as he finished first in the 100-yard freestyle at44.94 and also qualified for the NCAA’s in the 200breaststroke.

“You got to go out on top and that’s what we did,” Myers said.”We ended the season on a high note.”