The 2024 University Athletic Association Championships got underway on Wednesday in Chicago with the Eagles looking to defend their reign over the rest of the conference. The first night of competition featured the women's 1-meter dive and the 800 Freestyle Relay with Emory collecting three All-UAA performances.
Senior Tess Klugherz led off the evening as he paced the Eagles in the 1-meter dive. Klugherz earned fourth place in the first diving event of the week with a finals score of 423.15 after coming in fourth in prelims at 415.20. Sophomore Ren Watt also represented the Eagles in the event and placed 10th with a 400.85 score. in prelims.
Following the diving finals, the swimmers got their first crack at race action with the first of five relays. For the women, they were edged out by NYU for the second straight year but still earned All-UAA acclaim as the team of senior Penelope Helm, freshman Meredith Teague, sophomore Isabel Huang and senior Moshelle Borjigin dropped a time of 7:22.39 to finish second.
In the men's race, it went wire-to-wire with the Eagles, WashU and host Chicago in a three-way battle for the duration. Despite a blistering 1:36.13 anchor leg from sophomore Crow Thorsen, Chicago claimed the UAA title with a time of 6:34.29 outlasting Emory by just .10 seconds. Along with Thorsen, junior Alexander Pollack, senior Harrison Pire and senior Logan D'Amore garnered the Eagles third All-UAA effort of the night at 6:34.39.
With one night of events completed, the Eagles stand in fourth place in the team standings on the women's side with 139 points, trailing first place Chicago by 60 points. The Maroons hold the slight advantage in the men's table, with a 98-96 lead over the Eagles with WashU in third with 86 points.
Thursday sees the UAA Championships kick into full gear with a full competition slate featuring the 200 Freestyle Relay, 500 Freestyle, 200 IM, 50 Freestyle, men's 3-meter diving and the 400 Medley Relay. Prelims being at 10:00 AM CT with the finals to follow at 6:00 PM CT. Diving prelims will start at 12:45 PM local time with the finals to begin at 5:30 PM CT.