Emory University swimmers put forth their final efforts to improve their NCAA positioning on Saturday, competing in their home February Invitational at the WoodPEC in Atlanta. The Eagles played host to the three-day meet, competing against swimmers from Berry College, Salem College, Texas Permian Basin, Carson Newman, Catawba, Wingate and Mars Hill across three sessions.
Saturday saw the meet split between a morning and evening session with Emory swimmers turning in 13 event victories while adding 16 NCAA B Cuts.
On the men's side, the Eagles claimed three wins in both sessions. In the morning, freshman Hayden Tupper earned the top finish with a NCAA B Cut of 1:39.00 in the 200 Freestyle, junior Cooper Muench posted a NCAA B Cut of 55.42 to win the 100 Breaststroke, lowering his best mark by 0.42, and in the 100 Backstroke, junior Nolan Lahmann dropped .75 seconds off his season-best, winning the race with a time of 48.23.
For the women, they registered four wins in the morning. Freshman Maren McDonald led three Eagles inside the top-three at 55.52, lowering her NCAA B Cut mark by 0.48 seconds. Freshman Meredith Teague came through in the 200 Freestyle, dropping her NCAA B Cut time by 0.90 as she touched at 1:51.43. The two additional wins came from sophomore Jane Sanderson in the 100 Breast (1:52.62) and senior Leaya Ma in the 100 Back at 57.96.
In the early session, the Eagles registered additional season-best NCAA B Cuts from junior Anderson Holcomb in the 200 Breaststroke time trial (1:59.90), and junior Caroline Zhu (55.78) and sophomore Isabel Huang (55.79) in the 100 Fly.
When competition resumed in the evening the Eagles added six more wins, three from both teams, and produced four NCAA B Cuts.
For the women, sophomore Meredith Liu cut a second off her mile time to win the 1650 Freestyle at 17:12.82, senior Penelope Helm debuted in the 200 Backstroke to win at 2:04.29, and in the 200 Fly, junior Rosalie Gaudiani touched first at 2:03.93.
Freshman Graham Zucker was the first of three event winners for the men as he won the 200 Backstroke at 1:47.98 followed by senior Nicholas Goudie in the 100 Freestyle at 44.70. Holcomb rounded out the winners as he went for 1:59.91 in the 200 Breaststroke.
The Eagles now turn their attention to nationals as the team begins prepping for the 2024 NCAA Championships which will be held March 20-23 in Greensboro, North Carolina.