Relay Sets School Record to Open UAA Championships

(CHICAGO, Ill.) – The Carnegie Mellon University women's swimming and diving team began competition at the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships hosted by the University of Chicago on Wednesday, February 12 with women's 1-meter diving. The Tartans are currently in fifth place after the first day of swimming events on Thursday, February 13.

Junior Maddie Mianzo (Pittsburgh, Pa. / North Allegheny) earned the first points of the meet for the Tartans with an eighth-place finish in the diving pool. Mianzo tallied 408.15 points in the finals of 1-meter diving. Freshman Emilia Schwallie (Weston, Mass. / Weston) finished 11th in her first UAA Championships meet with 361.20 points while junior Lillie Widmayer (Old Bridge N.J. / West Windsor Plainsboro) was 12th with 350.05 points.

The 200-yard freestyle relay of freshman Tiffany Tseng (Westford, Mass. / Westford Academy), sophomore Madeline Hoedemaker (Pennington, N.J. / Hopewell Valley Central), junior Emma Graham (Mount Lebanon, Pa. / Mount Lebanon) and freshman Mathea Myhrvold (Raleigh, N.C. / Wakefield) kicked off Thursday night's session with a fifth-place finish in a school-record time of 1:35.03 that is also an NCAA qualifying time.

Sophomore Kierstyn Cassidy (Waynesville, Ohio / Waynesville) touched in a career-best time of 5:01.55 in the 500-yard freestyle to qualify for the B final on Thursday. Her finals time of 5:01.73 placed her 14th overall. Senior Taylor Brown (San Antonio, Texas / Johnson) also swam in the B final and finished just after Cassidy in a career-best time of 5:02.59.

Senior Emma Nicklas-Morris (Winston-Salem, N.C. / RJ Reynolds) was fourth in the 200-yard IM Thursday night. She reached the championship final with a season-best time of 2:05.90 in the preliminaries before topping that with a time of 2:04.52 to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Championships. Junior Jessica Chau (Ridgewood, N.J. / Ridgewood) was fourth in the B final in a season-best time of 2:07.42 with freshman Aidan Pinto (Rockaway, N.J. / Morris Hills) swimming to a career-best time of 2:07.75 to place fifth in the B final.

Myhrvold and Hoedemaker swam in the 50-yard freestyle C final and finished fifth and eighth in the heat in times of 24.27 and 24.84.

The 400-yard medley relay of freshman Bonnie Wang (Vancouver, BC / Collingwood School), freshman Eva Guo (Flushing, N.Y. / Townsend Harris), Tseng and Myhrvold closed the first session with a time of 3:53.72 in the 400-yard medley to place sixth.

Competition resumes Friday with 3-meter diving, the 200-yard medley relay, 400-yard IM, 100-yard butterfly, 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard breaststroke, 100-yard backstroke and 800-yard freestyle relay.