The Emory University men's and women's swimming and diving teams finished the Miami (Ohio) Invitational with a total of 21 NCAA ‘A' cut times and 132 ‘B' marks, helping the men's squad to second place and the women's squad to a third at the meet.

In their final meet of the 2009 calendar year, the Emory men scored 1,494 points during the three-day event, finished only behind Division I Oakland University (1,756 points).  The women scored 1,355 points during the invitational, trailing only host-school Miami University (2,321) and Florida Gulf Coast University (1,438), both Division I schools.

During the preliminaries on Saturday, the Emory women recorded five ‘A' cut times and 16 ‘B' cut times.  Sophomore Anne Culpepper had a pair of the automatic times, with marks of 2:03.49 in the 200-yard backstroke preliminaries and 4:59.62 in the 500-yard freestyle preliminaries.  Seniors Lillian Ciardelli (56.12 seconds in the 100-yard butterfly) and Ruth Westby (51.01 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle) and junior April Whitley (2:18.11 in the 200-yard breaststroke) all recorded automatic qualifying times during the preliminaries as well.

Adding on provisional qualifying times in the Saturday morning session for Emory were Taryn Lushinsky (200 Back), Whitley Taylor (200 Back, 100 Free), Natty Chalermpalanupap (200 Back, 500 Free), Jackie Schneider (200 Back), Liz Horvat (500 Free), Amy Minowitz (500 Free), Katie Mroz (500 Free, 200 Breast), Theresa Gallagher (500 Free), Leslie Hackler (100 Fly), Ann Wolber (100 Free), Ciardelli (100 Free), Claire Pavlak (100 Free), Whitley (200 IM), Jennifer Aronoff (200 IM), and Mia Michalak (200 IM).

In the final session of the meet, Emory received ‘A' cut performance from both its 200-medley and 400-freestyle ‘A' relay teams, in addition to Culpepper (2:02.23 in the 200 Back, the fourth-fastest time in school history), Horvat (4:56.22 in the 500 Free), Whitley (2:18.64 in the 200 Breast) and Westby (51.09 in the 100 Free).  Lushinksy (200 Back), Taylor (200 Back, 100 Free), Chalermpalanupap (200 Back), Schneider (200 Back), Culpepper (500 Free), Minowitz (500 Free), Ciardelli (100 Fly, 100 Free), Hackler (100 Fly), Mroz (200 Breast), Marie Kim (200 Breast), Pavlak (100 Free), Wolber (100 Free), Aronoff (200 IM), Whitley (200 IM) and Michalak (200 IM) all has ‘B' cut times during the finals, in addition to the squads' 200-medley and 400-freestyle ‘B' relays.

The women totaled 18 ‘A' cut times and 82 ‘B' cut times during the meet, for a total of 100 qualifying times.

The Emory men recorded 25 qualifying times during the final day of competition, including 12 in the morning session and 13 in the evening.  Emory's lone automatic qualifying mark of the day came from freshman Peter O'Brien in the preliminaries of the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:03.51, the second-fastest time in school history. 

Also in the morning session, Ken Minturn (200 Back, 200 IM), Mark Bernstein (200 Back, 500 Free), Patrick Malone (200 Back), John Petroff (100 Fly), Kevin Yamada (200 Breast, 200 IM), Mackenzie Perry (200 Breast), Tom DiMarco (200 IM) and O'Brien (200 IM) all recorded provisional qualifying marks.

During the Saturday night session, Minturn (200 Back, 200 IM), Bernstein (500 Free), Petroff (100 Fly), O'Brien (200 Breast, 200 IM), Yamada (200 Breast, 200 IM), Perry (200 Breast), Justin Beegle (200 Breast) and DiMarco (200 IM) recorded ‘B' cut times as well.

The men finished the meet with a total of 53 qualifying times, three of which were ‘A' cuts.

Emory will resume its season following the start of the New Year.