Coming off their 24th consecutive UAA Championships last weekend, members of the Emory University swimming & diving teams were back in the pool at the Emory February Invitational with one final opportunity to boost their times before next month's NCAA Championships.
The Eagles hosted other athletes from Catawba, Wingate, Mars Hill, Birmingham-Southern and Carson Newman across three sessions spanning two days with Emory swimmers racking up a total of 34 NCAA B Cuts at the meet. Of the 34 qualifying marks, eighteen were swims under previous seed times.
Graduate student Marianne Allard paced the Eagles with three NCAA cuts, going under her previous best marks in the 200 IM (2:04.81), 400 IM (4:26.70) and 200 Breast (2:19.18). Allard was one of five Emory women to record two or more B cuts at the meet, joined alongside by freshman Keenan Day in the 200 IM (2:05.03) and 100 Breast (1:04.47), senior Sarah Byers in the 400 IM (4:28.68) and 200 Breast (2:20.14), sophomore Rosalie Gaudiani in the 100 Fly (55.75) and 200 Fly (2:03.49) and freshman Isabel Huang in the 100 Back (56.42) and 200 Back (2:01.90).
On the men's side, 17 different swimmers posted NCAA cuts with junior Ryan Gibbons, freshman Patrick Horton and senior Caleb Peters recording B cuts in multiple events. Horton paced the Eagles at 49.05 in the 100 Fly and had a time of 49.58 in the 100 Back. Gibbons went 3:55.01 in the 400 IM and was third in the mile while Peters had season-best marks in the 100 (55.38) and 200 (2:01.19) Breaststrokes.
The Eagles also saw several divers in competition with senior Lucas Bumgarner besting his previous school record with a score of 612.85 in the men's 1-meter while sophomore Ariana Khan led the Emory women in the 3-meter at 509.05.
Additional notable swims were turned in by sophomore Crow Thorsen in the mile (15:36.95), sophomore Jeff Echols in the 200 Fly (1:47.42), junior Jake Meyer in the 100 Breast (53.91), sophomore Ali Kaiser in the 100 Breast (1:03.20) and senior Jeffrey de Groot in the 200 Free (1:39.06).
Emory divers continue the postseason slate next weekend with the NCAA Regionals, which will take place at the WoodPEC February 24-25, while the Eagle swimmers will begin prepping for nationals on March 15-18.