Women Increase Lead, Men in Third, at NCAA D-III Swimming & Diving Championships
Capped off by an NCAA Division III Women’s record-setting
performance and National Championship in the 400-yard medley relay,
the Emory women added to their lead during the second day of the
NCAA Championships, while the men ended the day in third place.
Emory freshman Sadie Nennig, senior April
Whitley, sophomore Leslie Hackler and
junior Claire Pavlak won the 400-yard medley relay
with a record setting time of 3:42.82 in the finals. The
Eagles bested the previous top mark, set by Denison in 2009, by six
tenths of a second. It was the first National Title in the
400-yard medley relay in the program’s history, and the
second of the meet after the same four Emory swimmers won the
200-yard medley relay on the first day of the meet. It was
the 28th National Championship in the history of the
Emory women’s swimming and diving program, and the seventh in
a relay.
The win in the 400-yard medley relay also marked the fifth National
Championship in Pavlak’s career matching former Eagle Ruth
Westby for the most in the program’s history.
Emory opened up a 95 point lead in the race for the women’s
team championship, scoring 320 points after two days to lead
second-place Denison University (225 points) and third-place
Williams College (217 points).
The Emory women opened the second day with a runner-up finish in
the 200-yard freestyle, as Renee Rosenkranz,
Suzanne Lemberg, Ann Wolber, and
Pavlak recorded a time of 1:33.03 to earn an all-America honor.
In the women’s 400-yard individual medley, senior Liz
Horvat recorded a second-place finish, besting her own
school-record (and previously the NCAA D-III record) time by more
than a second with a mark of 4:15.02, while freshman Laura
Manor also earned all-America honors with a time of
4:26.64 in the preliminaries. Freshman Brooke
Woodward (ninth place, 4:25.84) and sophomore
Taryn Lushinsky (12th place, 4:28.01)
each earned all-America honorable mentions in the event.
Hackler recorded the third second-place finish of the day for the
Eagles, claiming the runner-up spot in the 100-yard butterfly with
a school-record time of 54.75 seconds.
In the women’s 200-yard freestyle, junior Anne
Culpepper notched an all-America honor with a sixth-place
finish and a time of 1:49.93 in the preliminaries. Earning
all-America honorable mentions in the event were junior
Whitley Taylor (10th place, 1:50.17),
Wolber (15th place, 1:52.49) and senior Katie
Mroz (16th place, 1:52.72).
The Emory men ended the second day in third place with 183 points,
trailing first-place Kenyon College (258 points) and second-place
Denison University (217 points).
The 200-yard freestyle relay team opened the day on a positive note
for the Emory men’s team, as Ross Spock,
Richard Upton, Sean Ransenberg
and Ryan Bass finished second in the event with a
school-record time of 1:21.00, besting the previous school record
(set during the 2009 NCAA Championships), by .14 seconds.
Emory also received an all-America finish from its other relay
team of the day, as the 400-yard medley relay squad of Spock,
Peter O’Brien, Augustyn and Ransenberg set a
school record with a time of 3:18.88, good for a fourth-place
finish.
Junior Patrick Augustyn added an individual
all-America honor, the first of his Emory career, in the 100-yard
butterfly, finishing fourth with a time of 48.55 seconds.
Earning an all-America honorable mentions on the second day of
competition were senior Matt Spooner, who claimed
14th-place in the 400-yard individual medley with a time
of 4:01.75, and senior Mark Bernstein, who
finished 13th in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of
1:40.15 in the preliminaries.
Emory will continue its search for the National Championship on
Friday in Knoxville, TN, as the 200-yard butterfly, 100-yard
backstroke, 100-yard breaststroke and 800-yard freestyle relay will
be contested during the third day of competition.
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