A pair of national runner-up performances helped the Emory University women's swimming & diving team shave into Denison University's lead as the NCAA Championships move towards conclusion Friday night in Greensboro.
Junior Megan Jungers and sophomore Ariana Khan secured national runner-up finishes to highlight the Emory women on day three, pushing the Eagles closer to the Big Red. Following three days of events, Denison leads all teams with 350.5 points with Emory in second at 292 points and Kenyon rounding out the three-team race with 280 points.
For the second straight year, Jungers earned silver in the 100 Backstroke to open the swimming events for the Eagles. Jungers was out in front early in the race but a great final 50 from Kenyon's Olivia Smith unfortunately thwarted Jungers' title hopes, as Smith (54.00) out-touched her by .53 seconds. Freshman Penny Celtnieks (55.58) added a sixth place effort in the event for her first-ever individual All-America honor while senior Savannah Sowards (56.10) finished 13th.
The Eagles saw three more swimmers reach the finals in the 100 Breaststroke, led by senior Anna Glowniak and her seventh-place at 1:02.30. In the consolation final, junior Fiona Arwood and sophomore Ali Kaiser helped secure points for Emory with Arwood turning in a 13th place effort (1:03.73) and Kaiser taking 16th with a time of 1:04.04.
In the second-to-last event of the night, Khan made an excellent bid for another national championship on the diving boards but fell just shy of gold in the 1-meter event as she finished second at 429.80 – two points behind the winner from Amherst College, Sydney Bluestein (431.40).
The night concluded with the fastest heat of the 800 Freestyle Relay and saw Emory record a fifth place showing with the quartet of junior Penelope Helm, junior Moshelle Borjigin, freshman Isabel Huang and senior Sammie Kass with a combined effort of 7:25.97.
Emory looks to erase the DU lead as the NCAA Championships come to a close on Saturday with a schedule that features the 100 Freestyle, 200 Backstroke, 200 Breaststroke, 1650 Freestyle, and the 400 Freestyle Relay. Prelims get underway at 10am with the finals to start at 6pm and can be viewed live on NCAA.com.