By Michael Grenon, Swimming World Contributor
Day 3 of UAA championships saw three new women’s UAA records and a shuffle in the men’s team standings heading into the final day of competition. The Emory women’s and men’s squads maintained their leads, while the NYU men edged ahead of Chicago and Carnegie Mellon jumped ahead of Case Western Reserve. The women’s team ranks remained intact from day 2.
The women’s 200 medley relay saw a dramatic come-from-behind win by Emory’s A team. Ellie Thompson (Sr), Lizzie Aronoff (Sr), Megan Campbell (So), and Fiona Muir (Fr) combined for a 1:43.79, just barely ahead of Chicago’s team who finished in 1:43.83. Chicago out-split Emory on each leg until Muir, last night’s 50 freestyle champion, split the only 22-second leg in the field to get the win by 0.04 seconds. Wash U’s team finished fourth in 1:44.31.
The men’s race saw a tight battle in the middle of the pool, with Wash U eventually touching first in 1:30.23. Their team consisted of the same Kevin Van Cleave (Fr), Michael Lagieski (Jr), Reed Dalton (Sr), and Ross Brown (So) who won the 400 medley relay for Wash U last night. Lagieski and Dalton would win individual events later in the session. Thomas Meek (Sr) helped Chicago finish second with another big anchor 19.4 split to finish in 1:30.69. Emory’s squad finished third with a 1:30.86.
Phoebe Edwards (So) and Rebecca Upton (So) from Emory finished 1-2 in the women’s 400 IM in 4:24.20 and 4:26.39, respectively. Joining them with All-UAA honors was Wash U’s Nicole Zanolli (So) with a 4:27.75.
Emory’s Chandler Lichtefeld (So) followed his 200 IM win last night with a dominating victory in the 400 IM. Leading from start to finish, Lichtefeld touched in a time of 3:58.53. Drew Hamilton (So) of Case Western also got under 4:00 with a 3:59.53. NYU’s Reid Hensen (Fr) finished third with a 4:01.60.
The Emory women again got a 1-2 finish in the 100 butterfly, with Megan Campbell winning in 55.20 and her teammate Fiona Muir just behind in 55.25. Amanda Stadermann (Sr) of Wash U claimed third with a 55.73.
Wash U’s Reed Dalton won the men’s 100 fly in 48.31 seconds, followed by Matthew Veldman (Sr) from Chicago in a 49.05. Two freshmen from Wash U, Andrew Pek and Brandon Lum, claimed third and fourth in 49.86 and 49.88, respectively.
Emory’s Cindy Cheng (So) set the first UAA meet record of the night, cracking the 1:50 barrier in the 200 freestyle to win in 1:49.59. The old record of 1:50.60 stood over a second behind, which was set last year by Emory’s Julia Wawer. Wash U senior Kristalyn McAfee claimed second in 1:51.30, with Cheng’s teammate Meg Taylor (Fr) just behind with a 1:52.44.
Max Phillips (Jr) from NYU held off a charging Thomas Meek from Chicago to win the men’s 200 freestyle in 1:39.04 over Meek’s 1:39.12. Oliver Hudgins (So) from Case Western Reserve claimed third in 1:40.11.
Alex Veech (Jr) from Rochester was out very quickly in the women’s 100 breaststroke, but Emory’s Lizzie Aronoff swam a big second half to win in 1:03.08 to Veech’s 1:03.29. Ashley Daniels (Fr) joined her teammate Aronoff in the top-three with a 1:04.08 effort.
The men’s 100 breast saw 2014 winner Michael Lagieski from Wash U once again dominate the field finishing in 54.64 seconds. Timothy Kou (So) from NYU earned second place honors in 56.24, with Carnegie Mellon’s Winston Chu (Fr) third in 56.51.
The final women’s individual event saw a new UAA record from Chicago sophomore Melissa Bischoff, who erased Sadie Nennig of Emory’s 2012 record of 55.73 with her own 55.67. Claire Liu (Jr) from Emory earned the silver in 56.33 and May Li (Fr) of NYU was third in 56.49.
Chad Moody (So) from NYU was the only male under 50 seconds in the men’s 100 backstroke. He won in 49.96, winning a battle with Emory’s Mitchell Cooper (Jr) who finished at 50.04 seconds. Cooper’s teammate Zach Chen (Fr) claimed third in 50.97.
The host team’s Danielle Niu (Jr) won the women’s 3-meter diving event, just ahead of Emory’s Mara Rosenstock (So) who finished second in the 1-meter on Wednesday. Niu scored 440.40 points to Rosenstock’s 435.85. Rounding out the top three was NYU sophomore Austin Campiteli (So), just barely behind with 433.25 points.
The Emory women dominated the 800 freestyle relay at the end of the night, leading throughout their new conference mark of 7:28.54. The old record of 7:29.02 was set by Emory in 2014. Cindy Cheng lowered her new 200 freestyle UAA record from earlier tonight, leading off with a 1:49.38. Her teammates Meg Taylor, Ava Salmi (Fr), and Carolyn Bonfield (Sr) joined her in the win. Wash U’s women’s squad earned second in a time of 7:32.89, with Chicago just behind in 7:33.46.
Case Western Reserve earned their first victory of the meet in an intense side-by-side battle with defending champions Chicago for the men’s 800 freestyle relay crown. CWRU’s team of 400 IM runner-up Drew Hamilton, Aaron Tam (Sr), Oliver Hudgins (So), and Andrew Henning (Jr) avenged their second-place showing from last year to win in 6:42.65 ahead of Chicago’s 6:42.82. Emory earned third place with a 6:45.61 to close out the session.
Team standings heading into the final day of competition:
| Men | Women | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Team | Points | Rank | Team | Points |
| 1 | Emory | 1096.5 | 1 | Emory | 1349 |
| 2 | Washington University | 967 | 2 | Chicago | 940 |
| 3 | New York University | 869.5 | 3 | Washington University | 890.5 |
| 4 | Chicago | 863 | 4 | New York University | 857.5 |
| 5 | Carnegie Mellon | 641 | 5 | Carnegie Mellon | 648 |
| 6 | Case Western Reserve | 569 | 6 | Rochester | 438 |
| 7 | Rochester | 476 | 7 | Case Western Reserve | 426 |
| 8 | Brandeis | 259 | 8 | Brandeis | 245 |
Tomorrow’s events include the 1650 freestyle (timed finals), 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, men’s 1-meter diving, and the 400 freestyle relay.