Tartans in Fourth at Total Performance Invitational

(GAMBIER, Ohio) - The Carnegie Mellon University women's swimming and diving team continued competition at the Kenyon College Total Performance Invitational on Friday, December 4. After two days, the Tartans are fourth out of six teams and are ahead of Johns Hopkins University and DePauw University.

The 200-yard freestyle relay team of freshman Jessie Li (Superior, Colo./Fairview), sophomore Tiana Marrese (Pittsburgh, Pa./South Fayette), junior Gillian Crews (Fairfax, Va./Oakton), and junior Allison Kirkby (West Chester, Pa./Conestoga) placed sixth with a season-best time of 1:37.62 to start the meet.

Sophomore Mary St. John (Bethesda, Md./Sidwell Friends School) recorded a season-best time in the 200-yard butterfly when she touched in 2:08.69 during the preliminaries. In the finals, she finished in 2:08.74 to place 18th overall. Later in the meet, St. John placed 18th in the 400-yard IM in a season-best and NCAA provisional qualifying time of 4:34.16.

Kirkby knocked more than five seconds off her previous season-best time in the 200-yard freestyle when she finished in a career-best time of 1:55.65 to place second in the C final. She later swam the 50-yard freestyle and recorded a time of 24.54 to finish 14th. In the preliminaries, Kirkby recorded a team season-best time of 24.47.

Senior Felicia Wang (Mission Viejo, Calif./Capistrano Valley) won the B final of the 100-yard breaststroke in a season-best time of 1:06.31. Sophomore Kimberly Hochstedler (Mishawaka, Ind./Penn) was third in the B final with a best time of 1:06.52.

Senior Kira Singhaus (Cherry Hill, N.J./Cherry Hill West) was 10th overall in the 100-yard backstroke when she completed the event in 58.57. Her season-best time came in the preliminaries when she touched in 57.82.

Both junior Machika Kaku (Irvine, Calif./University) and senior Andie Azofeifa (Castle Rock, Colo./Douglas County) met the regional qualifying score on the 1-meter diving board. Kaku scored 442.50 in the finals (450.90 in preliminaries) to place second while Azofeifa scored 401.40 to place fourth. Kaku's score is her second qualifying score on the 1-meter solidifying her entrance to the diving regional in March.

The 400-medley relay team closed the night with a seventh-place finish. Singhaus, Wang, Crews and Kirkby swam the event in 3:52.01.

The final day of the invitational is Saturday with preliminaries in the morning and finals in the evening.