The Emory University men's swimming & diving team jumped into first place at the UAA Championships following a Thursday session that featured one event title, one new conference record and three runner-up finishes.
Similar to the Emory women's team, the men utilized their team depth to grab control of the team standings by sending 16 swimmers and divers to the finals in their respective events. After Thursday, the Eagles are locked into a three-way battle as they currently lead the field with 575 points with Chicago (547.5) and NYU (535) not too far behind.
The night was highlighted by the final event as the group of seniors Ryan Soh, Jake Meyer, Nicholas Goudie and junior Jeff Echols established a new conference meet record with a championship effort in the 400 Medley Relay. The group threw down a winning mark of 3:11.15 for the team's first event title of the meet.
Senior diver Alex York started the evening in impressive fashion as he captured his first-ever All-UAA honor with a runner-up effort in the 3-meter event. York scored 484.00 points in the finals to get things rolling on the night.
After York, the Emory swimmers began the evening session with sophomore Caden Bjornstad, junior Johnny Bradshaw, sophomore Sven Becker and Goudie taking fourth in an electrifyingly close 200 Freestyle Relay. The top four teams were separated by just .49 seconds with the Eagles quartet recording a time of 1:20.37.
Junior Crow Thorsen opened the individual portion of Thursday as he led five Eagles in the 500 Freestyle. Thorsen took second in the event at 4:28.53 with freshman McKee Thorsen placing fifth at 4:30.70, senior Logan D'Amore in sixth at 4:31.40 and senior Adam Copses taking eighth at 4:32.90. Junior Alexander Pollack was the consolation final winner as he touched in a time of 4:31.73.
In the 200 IM, junior Zachary Zhao was one of six Eagles in the B and C consolation finals and was the B final winner with his time of 1:50.33. Classmate Adam Braunschweig took 15th at 1:52.39 and in the C final, junior Liyang Sun paced four Emory caps at 1:51.84 to place 19th.
Goudie closed out the night for the individuals as he claimed second place in the 50 Freestyle with a time of 20.20. Three additional swimmers earned a spot in the B final with junior Dylan Yin winning the consolation race at 20.52.
Emory looks to extend its lead on day three of the UAA Championship with a Friday slate featuring the 200 Medley Relay, 400 IM, 100 Fly, 200 Free, 100 Breast, 100 Back and women's 3-meter diving.