Tartans Remain in Fifth at UAA Championships

(ROCHESTER, N.Y.) – The Carnegie Mellon University women's swimming and diving team continued competition at the University Athletic Association (UAA) Swimming and Diving Championships on Friday, February 19. The Tartans remain in fifth place after 14 events.

Sophomore Mary St. John (Bethesda, Md./Sidwell Friends School) raced to a fifth-place finish in the 400-yard IM when she touched in 4:29.99. Her time of 4:29.77 in the preliminaries is a career-best and provisionally qualifies her for the NCAA Championships.

Another NCAA provisional time was met by sophomore Kimberly Hochstedler (Mishawaka, Ind./Penn) when she finished fifth overall in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:05.45.

Junior Gillian Crews (Fairfax, Va./Oakton) swam in the finals of the 100-yard butterfly, placing seventh in 57.12. Fellow junior Shieri Suzuka (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Yorktown) won the "B" final of the 100-yard butterfly, touching in 57.19.

Seniors Kira Singhaus (Cherry Hill, N.J./Cherry Hill West) and Paige Sieffert (Ann Arbor, Mich./Saline) finished 12th and 13th, respectively, in the 100-yard backstroke touching in 58.57 and 59.05,  while junior Allison Kirkby (West Chester, Pa./Conestoga) was 14th in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:55.59.

The 200-yard medley relay team touched the wall in 1:46.51 to place fifth to open the finals session Friday night, as the 800-yard freestyle relay also placed fifth in a season-best 7:47.62.

On the three-meter diving board, senior Winona Li (Allison Park, Pa./Hampton) placed sixth with 401.30 points.

The final night of competition is Saturday with six events on the schedule.