Three Records Set by Nicklas-Morris; Kaku at TPSC Invitational

(GAMBIER, Ohio) - The Carnegie Mellon University women's swimming and diving team finished the Kenyon College Total Performance Sports Camp Invitational on Saturday with freshman Emma Nicklas-Morris (Winston-Salem, N.C./RJ Reynolds) setting two new school records and senior Machika Kaku (Irvine, Calif./University) setting the record on the 3-meter diving board.

The Tartans finished fourth with 1081.5 points and ahead of Division I Davidson College and Division III DePauw University. The University of Pennsylvania won the meet with 2,665 points.

Kaku dove to a career-best score of 492.70 on the 3-meter board to win the event and top the previous school record (473.55) set by Julie Pavia in 2006.

Nicklas-Morris's first school record of the day came in the preliminaries of the 200-yard breaststroke when she touched in 2:21.54 to also record a NCAA provisional mark. In the finals, she touched ninth in 2:22.17. Junior Kim Hochstedler (Mishawaka, Ind./Penn) was 10th in 24.08.

The second school record of the day for Nicklas-Morris was in the 200-yard IM. She had the top time of the preliminaries when she touched in a provisional qualifying time of 2:04.55 to break the record set by Molly Evans in 2011. She finished second overall in the finals with a time of 2:05.45.

Freshman Teagan Goforth (Portland, Ore./Tualatin) earned a place in the A-Final of the 200-yard backstroke and finished sixth overall with a NCAA provisional qualifying time of 2:04.17. Junior Emma Shi (Penfield, N.Y./Penfield) won the B-Final by touching the wall in 2:05.28.

Freshman Taylor Brown (San Antonio, Texas/Johnson) reached the evening finals of the 500-yard freestyle with a season-best time of 5:14.41 during the preliminaries and surpassed the time in the finals to place 23rd in 5:10.88. Junior Miranda Ford (Skillman, N.J./Montgomery) also made the finals and finished 25th in 5:19.70. Her morning swim of 5:16.38 was a season best.

The 100-yard butterfly was led by senior Gillian Crews (Fairfax, Va./Oakton) who won the B-Final with a time of 57.24. Junior Mary St. John (Bethesda, Md./Sidwell Friends School) finished sixth in the same heat in 57.81 while senior Shieri Suzuka (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Yorktown) was eighth in 57.95.

Senior Allison Kirkby (West Chester, Pa./Conestoga) had the best swim of the day for the Tartans in the 100-yard freestyle Saturday night when she touched 22nd overall in a season-best 52.99.

The last event of the meet was the 400-yard freestyle relay which the Tartan quartet of Nicklas-Morris, Shi, freshman Victoria Feng (Hopkinton, Mass./Hopkinton), and Kirkby finished in 3:33.10 to place eighth.

The team will now break for the holiday and return to competition on January 14 at home against Westminster College and SUNY Geneseo at 1:00 p.m.