FULL RESULTS/LIVE LINKS FOR FRIDAY & SATURDAYGROVE CITY, Pa. -- A pair of Washington & Jefferson divers repeated as league champions and a 29-year old school record was broken on the first day of the 2014-15 Presidents' Athletic Conference Swimming & Diving Championships.
Through one day, the Presidents' men are in third place with 166 points and the women are in fourth with 131 points. The PAC Championships, as well as the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Championships, combine to form the annual James E. Longnecker Invitational, hosted at Grove City.
Senior
Jennifer Suder won her third-straight PAC title in the three-meter dive with an NCAA qualifying score of 493.85 in the finals after posting a 482.40 in the preliminaries.
Sophomore
Josh Vasko repeated as the PAC champion in the men's one-meter dive with his score of 434.95 in the finals. Earlier during the preliminaries, he broke a 14-year old pool record and a five-year old invitational record with a 451.70 to qualify for the NCAAs.
Also on the men's side, W&J broke a six-year old school record in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:25.72. Sophomore
Nick Willison began the relay with a time of 21.24 in his 50-yard split, breaking the oldest standing W&J men's swimming and diving record that had stood since Scott McIntyre's 21.45 in 1986, nearly a decade before Willison was born. Willison was joined by
Chris Ratliff,
Kevin Dunigan and
Ben Henrichs on the team.
Ben Mancini (4:48.21 - fifth) and
Jake Meyers (5:03.72 - eighth) each posted top eight finishes in the men's 500 freestyle and Willison (1:56.31 - fifth) joined
Mike Magdic (1:57.16 - sixth) as top-eight finishers in the 200 individual medley. In the final event of the evening, Willison, Dunigan,
Matt Noel and Ratliff finished fifth in the 400 medley relay in 3:30.63, breaking the previous school recoord from last season of 3:30.90 held by Willison, Dunigan, Ratliff and Magdic. Willison again captured a school record to begin the race, breaking his previous mark of 52.85 in the 100 backstroke with a split of 51.94.
On the women's side,
Jessica Sweitzer was eighth in the 500 freestyle, touching the wall in 5:25.57.
Rachel Murphy picked up a sixth-place finish in the 200 IM at 2:12.80. The 200 freestyle relay of Sweitzer,
Rachel Nye,
Madison Babicka and
Laura Travers was third with a time of 1:38.99 as was the 400 medley relay of
Alexandra Gartner, Murphy,
Alexandra Martinez and Sweitzer with their time of 4:04.20.
Action gets back under way at Grove City on Friday morning, Feb. 13 at 10 am with the second day of preliminaries.
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