Emory Swimming & Diving Takes the Lead after Day 2 of the UAA Championships

The Emory University men's and women's swimming and diving teams combined to notch two conference meet records and eight individual and relay conference championships, and took the lead in the team points race after the second day of competition at the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships.

Emory University junior and reigning NCAA Division III Swimmer of the Year Liz Horvat broke her own conference meet record in the 500-yard freestyle, winning the event with a time of 4:52.98, an NCAA ‘A' cut time.  Horvat was followed in the event by Molly Evans of Carnegie Mellon University, and Katie Mroz of Emory, who both earned all-UAA honors for the top-three finish.

Emory's other conference record performance came from its 200-yard freestyle relay team of senior Ruth Westby, senior Lillian Ciardelli, freshman Ann Wolber and sophomore Claire Pavlak, which broke the record both in the morning preliminaries, and then again in the evening finals with a mark of 1:34.53 to win the event.  Emory was followed by Carnegie Mellon in second-place and Case Western in third.

The Emory women would go on to win the other three events during the second day as well, as sophomore Jennifer Aronoff claimed a victory in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:07.53, followed by Tatum Gormley of NYU and Marie Kim of Emory.  Emory's Westby took home the conference championship in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 23.53 seconds, followed by her teammate Claire Pavlak in second, and Washington University's Karina Stridh in third.  The Emory women rounded off the successful first day with a first-place finish by their 400-yard medley relay team of freshman Stephanie Molchan, Aronoff, Ciardelli and Westby, with a time of 3:52.84.  Chicago came in second behind the Eagles, followed by Rochester in third.

The Emory women lead the conference championship with 614 points after two days, followed by the University of Chicago (416 points), New York University (394.5 points), Carnegie Mellon University (292 points), the University of Rochester (275 points), Washington University (253 points), Case Western Reserve University (160.5 points), and Brandeis University (144 points).

The Eagles also came away with UAA championships in three events on the men's side, including a top-three sweep in the 200-yard individual medley.  Emory senior Kevin Yamada finished first in the event with a time of 1:53.19, followed by teammates Tom DiMarco in second and Mackenzie Perry in third. 

The Eagles also came away with victories in both men's relays, as the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Brad Sloan, Jason Cross, Dustin Frissell and Jared Dubnow won the event with a time of 1:24.99, and the Emory 400-yard medley relay team of Dubnow, Yamada, John Petroff and Sloan claimed victory with a time of 3:25.58.  The Chicago and NYU 200-yard freestyle relay teams came in second and third, respectively, to earn all-UAA honors, while the Carnegie Mellon and Chicago 400-yard medley relay teams did the same.

Emory sophomore diver Daniel Kolb earned all-UAA honors with a second place finish after scoring 413.80 points in the three-meter dive, finishing behind NYU's Maxwell Norris (427.65 points) and ahead of Carnegie Mellon's Mike Alexovich.  Emory sophomore Paul Weinstein recorded an all-UAA time of 4:37.01 in the 500-yard freestyle to finish third in the event, behind Gates Winkler and Frank Olechnowicz of Carnegie Mellon.

The only event the Eagles were shut out of all-UAA honors in was the 50-yard freestyle, which was won by NYU's Eric Pcholinski (20.94 seconds), followed by Marius Aleksa of Chicago and Jeffrey Dahlen of NYU.

The Emory men ended the second day in first place in the team standings with 613 points, followed by Carnegie Mellon (489), NYU (342), Chicago (317), Washington (300), Case (268), Rochester (168) and Brandeis (159).

Action at the UAA Championships, hosted by Emory University in the Madeleine Jude Brown Aquatic Center in the Woodruff Physical Education Center, will resume on Friday at 10:00 AM with the swimming preliminaries.