The Emory University men's and women's swimming and diving team wrapped up the 2011 portion of its schedule in successful fashion, setting a pair of school records and totaling 27 NCAA 'A' cut times en route to second-place finishes at the Miami (Ohio) Invitational this weekend.

The Emory men finished second out of eight teams at the meet, scoring 1,673 points to place only behind Denison University, which scored 2,459.5 points.  The Emory women totaled 1,818 points during the three-day meet, finishing only behind Miami University (2,637 points).

Highlighting the meet for the Emory men was junior Peter O'Brien, who broke former Eagle Kevin Yamada's school record in the 100-yard breaststroke, finishing first in the event with an 'A' cut time of 55.93 seconds in the preliminaries.  O'Brien added individual 'A' cut times in the 400-yard individual medley preliminaries (3:57.44), and the finals of both the 200-yard breaststroke (2:00.79) and the 200-yard individual medley (1:50.25).  He was also a turned in strong performances on two relay teams, winning the 200-yard medley relay along with sophomore Ross Spock, junior Stephen Czaja and sophomore Ryan Bass with an 'A' cut time of 1:30.34 and finishing second in the 400-yard medley relay with Spock, senior Patrick Augustyn and sophomore Jake Stephens with an 'A' cut time of 3:19.58.

The Emory men also received a record-setting performance from its winning 200-yard freestyle relay team of Bass, junior Richard Upton, senior Sean Ransenberg and Spock, which set a meet record with an 'A' cut time of 1:21.31.  Stephens, Bass, Ransenberg and Spock later teamed up for a victory in the 400-yard freestyle relay with an automatic qualifying time of 3:00.05.

For the men, other 'A' cut times came from Augustyn in the 100 fly (48.60 seconds) and the 200 fly (1:47.07), Stephens in the 200 IM (1:50.52) and the 400 IM (3:57.42), junior Miller Douglas in the 100 fly (49.31 seconds) and the 200 fly (1:48.40), and Spock in the 100 back (49.35 seconds).  Emory men's swimmers added on 30 NCAA 'B' cut times during the meet.

Meanwhile, on the women's side, sophomore Sadie Nennig broke her own school record in the 100-yard backstroke with an 'A' cut time of 55.24 seconds in the preliminaries, eventually finishing second in the finals of the event.  Nennig later won the 200-yard backstroke with a mark of 1:59.00 and the 200-yard individual medley with a mark of 2:03.81, both NCAA automatic qualifying times.  The sophomore added an 'A' cut time along with senior Jennifer Aronoff, junior Leslie Hackler and senior Claire Pavlak in the 400-yard medley relay (3:46.35), finishing second.  The same four finished third in the 200-yard medley relay with a 'B' cut time of 1:44.06.

Adding 'A' cut times for the women were sophomore Brooke Woodward in the 200 IM (2:04.55) and the 400 IM (4:22.53), Pavlak in the 50 free (23.17 seconds), senior Whitley Taylor in the 200 back (2:01.09), senior Anne Culpepper in the 200 back (2:01.52), and junior Renee Rosenkranz in the 100 free (50.70 seconds).  The Eagles' also received automatic qualifying times from both their 200 free relay team of junior Ann Wolber, sophomore Suzanne Lemberg, junior Anna Dobben and Pavlak (1:33.11) and their 400 free relay team of Rosenkranz, freshman Nancy Larson, Dobben and Pavlak (3:22.69).  Emory's women swimmers accounted for an additional 53 'B' cut times at the Miami Invitational.

The Eagles also sent part of their squad to the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) Invitational this weekend, where the men finished second out of seven squads, while the women finished second out of nine teams.  The men's 530 points scored during the meet placed them only behind Wingate (1,277 points), while the women also finished behind Wingate (898.5 points) with 685 points scored.

Top performers for the Emory men at the SCAD Invitational included senior Zeke Van Keuren, who won the 100-yard backstroke with a 'B' cut time of 51.30 seconds, sophomore Jack Polisini who claimed second in the 400-yard individual medley with a 'B' cut time of 4:05.77, and sophomore Taylor Werkema, who recorded a 'B' cut time of 1:53.20 in the preliminaries of the 200-yard backstroke.

For the Emory women at SCAD, freshman Nina Zook won the 200-yard butterfly, swimming a 'B' cut time of 2:06.21 in the preliminaries, and finished fourth in the 200-yard individual medley with a provisional time of 2:08.32.  Other 'B' cut times during the meet came from sophomore Laura Manor in the 400-yard individual medley (4:33.92), freshman Lexi Tutor in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:24.11), sophomore Ellen Schafer in the 50-yard freestyle (23.96 seconds), junior Samantha Neumann in the 200-yard butterfly (2:06.86) and freshman Corinne Talhouk in the 200-yard backstroke (2:05.45).

After winter break, the Eagles will return to action on January 13^th, 2012, swimming at the University of Tampa.