Emory Swimming & Diving Remains in First at the UAAs

The Emory University swimming and diving teams combined to set seven more conference records and win ten additional conference championships, as each team remained in first place after two days of competition at the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships in Rochester, NY.

The top-ranked Emory women have scored 1,435 points through the end of competition on Friday, taking a large lead over second-place Chicago (833.5 points) and third-place Washington University (736.5 points).  Meanwhile, the nationally second-ranked men ended Friday with 1,322 points to lead Carnegie Mellon (837.5 points) and Chicago (765.5 points).

Opening the evening session, Emory junior Daniel Kolb swept the men’s diving events by winning the three-meter dive with a school-record score of 506.85 in the finals, good for an NCAA qualifying mark.  Kolb set his second school-dive record of the meet, and finished more than 23 points ahead of the second-place competitor.

Both the Emory men’s and women’s 200-yard medley relay teams set conference records at the meet.  The women’s ‘A’ relay of sophomore Jackie Schneider, senior April Whitley, senior Morgan Klinzing, and junior Claire Pavlak won the event in a UAA-record time of 1:44.44, while the Eagles’ ‘B’ relay team of freshman Sadie Nennig, junior Jennifer Aronoff, senior Marie Kim and sophomore Renee Rosenkranz won their heat with a time of 1:45.38, the second-best time in the event at the meet.  On the men’s side, freshman Ross Spock, sophomore Justin Beegle, sophomore Stephen Czaja and freshman Ryan Bass matched a UAA record with a time of 1:32.27, also finishing first.

Emory athletes also set records on both the men’s and women’s side of the 400-yard individual medley.  For the men, Matt Spooner won the event in a UAA-record time of 4:01.08, while Beegle earned all-UAA honors with a third-place finish (4:05.70).  For the women, Horvat broke her own conference record with a time of 4:18.48, while freshman Laura Manor finished second with an ‘A’ cut time of 4:26.68.

The Emory women would go on to sweep the all-UAA honors in both the 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard breaststroke.  In the 200 free, freshman Jennifer Pak won the event with a time of 1:52.65, while junior Whitley Taylor finished second and senior Amy Minowitz finished third.  In the 100 breast, April Whitley claimed first in a UAA-record time of 1:03.73, while Aronoff finished second and senior Katie Mroz third.  Schneider would also set an individual record for the Emory women, swimming a time of 56.74 in the 100-yard backstroke, and finishing second in the finals.

Junior Sean Ransenberg added a UAA Championship in the 200-yard freestyle for the Emory men with a time of 1:40.88 in the event, while senior Mark Bernstein finished third to capture all-UAA honors.  Czaja picked up all-UAA honors with a second-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly, while Beegle and sophomore Peter O’Brien finished second and third, respectively, in the 100-yard breaststroke, and freshman A.J. Khosla finished second in the 100-yard backstroke.

Capping off the meet, Emory’s women’s 800-yard freestyle relay team of Mroz, Minowitz, Pak and Horvat set a conference record with a time of 7:33.94 and a first-place finish.  For the men, senior Justin Leemis, junior Joel Dobben, Spooner and Bernstein won the event with a time of 6:50.29, while freshman Darrell Eacret, sophomore Jeff Simpson, Peter O’Brien and junior Paul Weinstein won the ‘B’ finals with a time of 6:50.38, the second-best time in the event at the meet.

The UAA Championships will conclude on Saturday, as the 200-yard backstroke, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard breaststroke, 200-yard butterfly, 1,650-yard freestyle, women’s one-meter dive and 400-yard freestyle relay will all be contested, beginning with the preliminaries at 10:00 AM and the finals at 6:00 PM.