CANTON, Ohio – The Washington & Jefferson College swimming & diving teams opened action at the annual Malone Invitational hosted by the Division II Malone Pioneers. The men are currently in sixth place while the women wrapped day one in 11^th.
 
Leading the W&J men was the relay unit of Ethan Glessner (McKeesport, Pa./Elizabeth Forward), Nathaniel Harden (Greensburg, Pa./Hempfield Area), March Yuan (Simi Valley, Calif./Oak Park) and Daniel Jeffries (Irwin, Pa./Hempfield Area) in the 400-yard medley relay. The unit finished with a time of 3:34.55, featuring a season-best split in the 100-yard breaststroke from Harden.
 
The quad consisting of Jeffries, Corbin Likar (Amity, Pa./Trinity), Aiden Marks (West Mifflin, Pa./West Mifflin) and Brian Lowry (Wenonah, N.J./Gloucester County Institute of Technology) raced to a seventh-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay. The unit outpaced it's mark from the Presidents' Athletic Conference Championships a season ago by 0.6 seconds with a mark of 1:26.95.
 
Yuan led all W&J individuals with a 12^th-place finish in the finals of the 500-yard freestyle with a mark of 4:53.02. His preliminary time of 4:52.94 was good enough for a season-best in the event.
 
Glessner finished 13^th with a time of 2:02.37 in the 200-yard IM finals. Glessner paced his way to a personal-best in the event in the preliminary race, surpassing his previous best in the event with a time of 2:02.27.
 
Jeffries finished 16^th in the 50-yard freestyle finals with a mark of 22.30. In the preliminary race, Jeffries hit a personal-best time in the event with a mark of 21.92.
 
Mackenzie Caron (Reading, Pa./Governor Mifflin) led the W&J women with its highest individual finish of ninth place in the 500-yard freestyle. She paced her way to a season-best time of 5:21.83 in the B final of the event, dropping 10 seconds off her previous best which was set in the preliminary race.
 
The relay unit of Caron, Maddie Malone (Charlottesville, Va./Monticello), Riley Gutierrez (Deer Park, Texas/Deer Park) and Andrea DeLong (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) finished 17^th in the 400-yard medley relay with a time of 4:35.95.
 
The team of Caron, Malone, Gutierrez and Mela Barnhart (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) raced their way to a 19^th place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay. The unit finished with a time of 1:52.58, featuring a personal-best split by Caron in the 50-yard freestyle by 1.6 seconds.
 
Rachel Xu (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny), Audrey Kough (Fayetteville, Pa./Chambersburg), Sophie Talamonti (Flushing, Ohio/Union Local), Malone and DeLong each reached season and personal bests in the preliminary rounds.
 
The Presidents return to the Malone Invitational on Friday (Nov. 21) for day two action in Canton. Preliminary action is set to begin at 10:00 a.m. with finals to follow starting at 6:30 p.m.