The Emory University women’ swimming and diving team ended the first day of competition at the NCAA Division III Championships in Knoxville, TN in first place, while the men are in the hunt for a National Title as well, currently sitting in second place.

The Eagles received a National Championship from their women’s 200-yard medley relay team on the first day, as freshman Sadie Nennig, senior April Whitley, sophomore Leslie Hackler and junior Claire Pavlak won the event with a time of 1:41.58, besting the previous school record by well over a second.

The National Championship was the 27^th in the history of the Emory women’s swimming and diving program, and the sixth in a relay event.  It was the first by an Emory women’s squad in a medley relay.

The top individual finish of the day for the Emory women came from Whitley, who set a school-record in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:03.07 in the preliminaries, and finished second in the finals with a mark of 2:03.29 to earn all-America honors.  Nennig earned her first career all-America honor in the event as well with a sixth-place finish in a time of 2:04.47, while freshman Brooke Woodward (10^th place, 2:05.33) and junior Jennifer Aronoff (11^th place, 2:05.65) each earned all-America honorable mentions.

In the women’s 500-yard freestyle, senior Liz Horvat (third place, 4:49.47) and Anne Culpepper (fifth place, 4:52.39 in the preliminaries) earned all-America honors, while freshman Courtney McDermott (10^th place, 4:57.61 in the preliminaries) and junior Whitley Taylor (12^th place, 4:58.10) claimed honorable mentions.

In the 50-yard freestyle, Pavlak earned all-America honors by finishing third with a time of 23.24 seconds, while freshman Suzanne Lemberg finished seventh with a best time of 23.62 seconds in the preliminaries to claim an all-America certificate as well.  Sophomore Renee Rosenkranz (10^th place, 23.57 seconds) and sophomore Ann Wolber (15^th place, 23.79 seconds in the preliminaries) each earned all-America honors.

The Emory women scored 162 points during the first day of competition, well ahead of second-place Denison (103 points) and third-place Williams College (90 points).

The Emory men had a pair of school-record setting performances during the first day.  Sophomore Peter O’Brien set a program record in the 200-yard individual medley with time of 1:50.16 and a fourth-place finish, good for an all-America honor.  Freshman Ross Spock set a school record in the 50-yard freestyle preliminaries, swimming a time of 20.41 seconds and finishing seventh in the finals to earn all-America honors.

Other all-America finishes on the first day for the Emory men came from senior Mark Bernstein in the 500-yard freestyle (sixth place, 4:28.40), freshman Ryan Bass in the 50-yard freestyle (sixth place, 20.54 seconds in the preliminaries), and the Eagles’ 200-yard medley relay team of Spock, O’Brien, junior Patrick Augustyn and Bass, which finished third in a time of 1:30.91.

Freshman Darrell Eacret (14^th place, 4:33.94 in the preliminaries) and junior Paul Weinstein (15^th place, 4:33.96 seconds in the preliminaries) each earned all-America honorable mentions in the 500-yard freestyle, while Augustyn added an honorable mention in the 200-yard individual medley (13^th place, 1:51.60 in the preliminaries) and sophomore Richard Upton claimed one in the 50-yard freestyle (14^th place, 20.73 seconds).

The Emory men scored a total of 97 points during the first day, just nine points behind first-place Kenyon College, and 12 points ahead of third-place Denison University.

The NCAA Championships will resume tomorrow at 10:00 AM with the preliminaries of the 200-yard freestyle relay, the 400-yard individual medley, the 100-yard butterfly, the 200-yard freestyle, the 400-yard medley relay and the men’s one-meter dive.