GETTYSBURG, Pa.—The Garnet women kicked off the 2016 Centennial Conference Championship tied for fifth place with 112 points and five top-eight finishes.
In the first event of the evening, the 200-yard freestyle relay, the quartet of Rose Ridder, Sophie Moody, Elizabeth Staton, and Ashley Hwang finished in sixth-place with a season-best time of 1:40.14, dropping over two-and-a-half seconds from the squad's previous best. This time is the seventh-fastest in program history. The B relay team of Diane Lee, Amelia Tomei, Jillian Haywood, and Briana Schoenek finished 11th in the race with a time of 1:41.11.
Freshman Emily Bley kicked off the individual events for the Garnet with a season-best time of 5:12.22 on her way to a 10th-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle. This effort ranks Bley third in program history. Earlier in the day Sydney Anderson and Abigail Byrne finished with season best times of 5:29.28 and 5:30.14, respectively.
Sarah Solomon and Maggie Eberts swam next for the Garnet in the 200-yard individual medley. Solomon moved up three spots to 12th place in her evening swim by dropping another second to a life-time best time of 2:12.46 and Eberts moved up three spots to fifth place but just missed her lifetime best time recorded earlier in the morning at 2:11.09. Eberts' prelim time makes her the second-fastest in program history while Solomon's ranks seventh.
Five additional women competed in the preliminary heats; freshman Amelia Tomei narrowly missed the consolation final, finishing 17th in 2:14.46. Sophomore Jillian Haywood finished 20th with a personal record of 2:15.72. Returning from a semester abroad, junior Erica Flor tied her personal best 2:16.84, while freshman Sierra Bienz touched in 2:18.31, dropping six seconds from her previous personal record. Rounding out the event, senior captain Eva Winter earned a season best time, finishing in 2:18.52.
In the final individual event of the evening, Rose Ridder (24.86) led the way for the Garnet with an eighth place finish while Sophie Moody (25.25) captured sixteenth. Ridder and Moody both set new personal records during their morning swims of 24.65 and 25.06, respectively. Ridder is now the second-fastest swimmer in program history. Liz Staton (25.15) narrowly missed the consolation finals, finishing in a tie for 18th place with a personal record. Briana Schoenek (25.18) recorded her fastest swim in three years with the Garnet to finish 21st.
Rounding out day one for Swarthmore, the 400-yard medley relay team of Bley, Eberts, Solomon and sophomore Ashley Hwang finished in sixth place with a final time of 4:00.74 to earn the fourth spot on the All-Time Top Ten list. The B relay team of Flor, Staton, Tomei, and Schoenek finished in 4:05.90 tallying 10 additional points for the team.
The Garnet return to action on Saturday morning at 10 am at Bullets Pool.
