Relay Championship Leads Tartans at Second Day of UAA Championships

(CHICAGO, Ill.) - Day two of the University Athletic Association Swimming and Diving Championships was a success for the Carnegie Mellon University women's swimming and diving team as the 200-yard medley relay highlighted the day with a championship performance. The Tartans are currently fourth with 773.50 points as the meet is being hosted by the University of Chicago.

The 200-yard medley relay opened the evening with a title grabbing performance, setting a Universty of Chicago pool record and bettering last year's NCAA Championship selection time. Freshman Kira Singhaus (Cherry Hill, N.J./Cherry Hill West), freshman Felicia Wang (Mission Viejo, Calif./Capistrano Valley), junior Soleil Phan (Irvine, Calif./Beckman) and senior Breanna Stillo (West Caldwell, N.J./James Caldwell) touched first convincely in 1:46.20.

Sophomore Kelley Sheehan (Poway, Calif./Poway) might have punched her way to the NCAA Championships after finishing the 400-yard IM in 4:30.40 for seventh place. Her time was better than last year's selection time and actually .03 off her time in the preliminaries. Sophomore Wendy Liu (Bridgewater, N.J./Bridgewater-Raritan) swam a provisionally qualifying time of 4:35.58 in the B-final, touching fourth, while freshman Corrine Bacigal (Campbell Hall, N.Y./Washingtonville) touched sixth in the B-final in 4:41.37.

Also earning points for the Tartans in the 400-yard IM was sophomore Nicole Crimi (Eureka, Mo./Visitation Academy) and freshman Alexandra Mod (New Orleans, La./Isidore Newman) who finished second and seventh, respectively, in the C-final behind times of 4:39.37 and 4:52.85, both season bests.

Phan broke her own school record in the 100-yard butterfly during the preliminaries after finishing n 56.79 seconds. She finished the championship heat in fourth place with a time of 56.86 and provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships.

Three women swam in the evening session of the 200-yard freestyle as junior Megan Garvey (West Chester, Pa./Villa Maria Academy) was second in the B-final in 1:55.43 and sophomore Kaeli Halbersleben (Maineville, Ohio/Kings) was sixth in 1:57.68. Freshman Hannah Hoffert (Midlothian, Va./James River) picked up six points for the Tartans, touching third in the C-final in a season-best time of 1:57.99.

Stillo swam to another All-UAA performance with a third-place showing in the 100-yard breaststroke. Her time of 1:05.15 broke her own school record and provisionally qualified her for the NCAA meet. Junior Tatiana Duchak (Centreville, Va./Mercersburg Academy) was also in the championship final of the 100-yard breaststroke as she finished sixth in 1:06.61.

Five additional Tartans reached the finals heats of the 100-yard breaststroke with Wang winning the B-final in 1:07.69, senior Price Kinney (Greenville, S.C./J.L. Mann Academy) touching second in the B-final in 1:07.81, junior Vivian Wong (Saratoga, Calif./The Harker School) taking fifth in 1:08.62 and freshman Janay Parrish (Henryville, Pa./Pocono Mountain East) finishing eighth in 1:09.12. Parrish swam her season-best time of 1:08.79 in the preliminaries to reach the B-final. In the C-final, freshman Julia Atwood (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Mechanicsburg) was third in 1:09.25.

Singhaus led the charge of six Tartans in the 100-yard backstroke finishing fifth overall in a season-best and provisionally qualifying time of 57.80. Elissa Maercklein (Whitefish Bay, Wis./Whitefish Bay) was fourth in the B-final in 59.05 with freshman Paige Sieffert (Ann Arbor, Mich./Saline) finishing sixth in 1:00.14 and Bacigal seventh n 1:00.22. Bacigal broke one minute in the preliminaries n 59.54. Freshman Kristi Wong (Scarsdale, N.Y./Edgemont) was third in the C-final in 1:00.91 as Mod was seventh in 1:02.44.

The 800-yard freestyle relay of Sheehan, Phan, Garvey and Liu closed the evening with a third-place finish and met last year's NCAA selection time in 7:40.41.

The final day of the championships will begin on Saturday at 9 a.m. central time.