Eagles Remain in Lead after Day Three of the UAA Swimming & Diving Championships

The Emory University men's and women's swimming and diving teams stayed atop the standings at the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships after three days, claiming 10 more individual and relay conference championships in the process.

The Emory women remained in first place with 1411 points, followed by second-place Chicago (928) and third-place New York University (789.5).  Carnegie Mellon currently stands in fourth place with 677 points, followed by Washington University (569), Rochester (515), Case Western Reserve (425.5) and Brandeis (344).

The Eagles claimed victory in six of the seven women's swimming events on Friday, including setting conference-meet records in five.  Emory opened the evening finals session with a UAA record performance in the 200-yard medley relay, as the squad of freshman Jackie Schneider, April Whitley, Lillian Ciardelli and Claire Pavlak won the event with a time 1:45.69.  Carnegie Mellon and Chicago earned all-UAA honors with second- and third-place finishes, respectively.

In the 400-yard individual medley, junior Liz Horvat earned her second championship and UAA record of the meet with a time of 4:23.45.  She was followed by freshman teammate Theresa Gallagher in second, and Chicago's Laura Biery in third.

Senior Lillian Ciardelli won the 100-yard butterfly with a UAA-meet record of 56.23 seconds.  NYU's Chelsea Pfohl came in second, and Chicago's Ellie Elgamal claimed third.  Emory's Ruth Westby earned the victory in the 200-yard freestyle with a UAA-record time of 1:50.69, while sophomore teammate Whitley Taylor earned all-UAA honors with a second-place finish, followed by Molly Evans of Carnegie.

The Eagles took the top two spots in the 100-yard breaststroke with Jennifer Aronoff turning in a UAA record time of 1:04.24, and April Whitley less than a second behind.  Carnegie's Breanna Stillo claimed all-UAA honors with a third-place finish in the 100 breast.  The University of Chicago's Tara Levens set a UAA record in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 57.67, followed by Karina Stridh and Emory's Whitley Taylor in third.

In the women's three-meter dive, Emory senior Chelsea Murphy earned a third-place finish with a score of 386.15, behind Rebecca Schmidt of Chicago and Kelly Dietz of NYU.

The Emory women rounded out the day of competition with a first-place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay (7:37.11), with Chicago coming in second and Carnegie Mellon third.

On the men's side, the Eagles maintained a lead with 1,269 points, ahead of second-place Carnegie Mellon (1,027) and third-place Chicago (770).  Washington sits in fourth with 680.5 points, then NYU with 574, Case with 547.5, Rochester with 420.5 and Brandeis with 405.5.

The Emory men's 200-yard medley relay team of Nick Kelly, Kevin Yamada, John Petroff and Brad Sloan finished first with a time of 1:33.67, with Carnegie earning a second-place finish and Case claiming third.  In the 400-yard individual medley, Carnegie's Alex Hanson earned the conference championship (4:02.60), with Emory claiming the other two all-UAA honors in the event, as Ken Minturn finished second and Matt Spooner third.

Emory took each of the top-three spots in the men's 100-yard butterfly, as John Petroff won the event with a mark of 49.88 second, while Mackenzie Perry finished second and Nick Kelly third.  The Eagles also had the top finisher in the 100-yard breaststroke, as Kevin Yamada won the event with a time of 57.48 seconds, with Ed Wagner (Chicago) and Dima Galkin (Washington) taking second and third.

Washington's David Chao earned the conference title in the 200-yard freestyle, followed by Emory's Justin Leemis and Carnegie's Joshua Mathews.   In the 100-yard backstroke, Scott Moorby and Jeffrey Dahlen of Carnegie finished first and second, and Drew Swartz of Case took third.

The Emory men finished the day with a thrilling first-place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay, as the team of Tom DiMarco, Justin Leemis, Dustin Frissell and Ken Minturn finished with a time of 6:50.26, one hundredth of a second better than Carnegie Mellon's squad.  Washington University earned the third-place finish in the event.

Action at the UAA Championship at Emory will resume with the final day on Saturday, with the preliminaries starting at 10:00 AM, and the finals at 6:00 PM.