Eagles Win 12th-Straight UAA Championship; Westby & Horvat Named Co-UAA Swimmers of the Year

The Emory University swimming and diving teams made it a dozen in a row on Saturday night, as both the Eagles' men and women claimed victory at the 2010 University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships for the 12^th-consecutive year.

The Emory women finished the meet with 2,065 points, the most in the history of UAA competition.  The Eagles finished 686 points better than the second place University of Chicago.  Emory's men scored 1855 points during the weekend, eclipsing second-place Carnegie Mellon University by 331 points.

In addition, senior Ruth Westby and junior Liz Horvat shared the UAA Women's Swimmer of the Year honors for the meet.  Westby swam in seven events during the meet, three individual and four relays, and finished first in all seven, setting conference records in the 200-yard freestyle relay, 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle and 400-yard freestyle relay.  Horvat swam in three events during the meet, the 500-yard freestyle, 1,650-yard freestyle and 400-yard individual medley, and set conference records with ‘A' cut times in all three.

This is the second UAA Swimmer of the Year honor for Westby, become the first women's swimmer to repeat the honor since Johns Hopkins Steph Harbeson did so in 2000 and 2001.

On the final day of competition, the Eagles combined to set four UAA records and earn five UAA Championships with 19 all-UAA honors.

The Emory women swept both the 100-yard freestyle and the 200-yard breaststroke, with Westby, Lillian Ciardelli and Claire Pavlak took first, second and third, respectively, while April Whitley, Marie Kim, and Jennifer Aronoff did the same in the 200-yard breaststroke.  Both Westby and Whitley set UAA records in their respective events.

Horvat (1,650 free) and Leslie Hackler (200 fly) each won their events as well, while Whitley Taylor and Taryn Lushinsky finished second and third in the 200-yard backstroke to take home all-UAA honors.  The Eagles' 400-yard freestyle relay team also finished first with a UAA record time of 3:27.47.

For the men, Ken Minturn claimed the Eagles one of two first-place finishes of the day, winning the 200-yard backstroke with a time 1:52.86.  Mackenzie Perry earned the other individual championship for Emory, swimming a first-place time of 1:52.10 in the 200-yard butterfly.

Daniel Kolb (2^nd, 1-meter dive), Paul Weinstein (2^nd, 1,650 free), Justin Leemis (3^rd, 100 free), Kevin Yamada (3^rd, 200 breast), John Petroff (200 fly) and the Eagles' second-place 400-yard freestyle relay team also earned all-UAA honors.

The Emory women totaled 16 UAA Championships, 31 all-UAA honors and 11 conference records during the meet, while the men notched nine conference championships and 24 all-UAA honors.

The Eagles will now begin preparing for the NCAA Division III Championships next month, starting with the Bulldog Last Chance Meet at the University of Georgia next weekend.