Freshman Zach Lorson races at the Denison Invitational on Nov. 30. Lorson was named the UAA Athlete of the Week on Dec. 3 for his performance at the invitational.
The Emory men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams kicked off the Denison Invitational at Denison University (Ohio) from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, finishing second and third, respectively.
On the men’s side, the Eagles recorded six event wins, 40 NCAA B cuts and one school record over the three days, finishing second overall with 1,872 points, behind No. 1 Denison with 2,936 points.
On the first day of competition, the Eagles totaled five top-four finishes and 13 NCAA B cuts. Senior Trey Kolleck finished second in the 50-yard freestyle with an NCAA cut time of 20.18. Kolleck, along with junior Sage Ono, senior Zachary Chen and freshman Colin LaFave earned silver in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:20.63.
On the second day, the Eagles compiled three event wins, including first-place finishes by freshmen Lucas Bumgarner and Zach Lorson in the one-meter diving with a score of 288.55 and 400-yard IM with a school record time of 3:51.86, respectively. The final win of the day came from Kolleck, senior Alex Kohlman, junior Connor McCourt and sophomore Kellen Stillman in the 800-yard freestyle relay with a time of 6:38.59.
In the final day of competition, the Eagles secured three more event wins. Bumgarner scored 275.95 in the three-meter diving, freshman Jason Hamilton touched first in the 200-yard breaststroke and Kolleck received top honors in the 100-yard freestyle with a qualifying time of 44:09.
“While I had gotten off to a less-than-ideal start the first day of the meet, I spent the last two days of it focusing less on the competition and more on simply swimming my race,” Kolleck said. “While it’s always nice to win a race against a rival like Denison, I was happy because I put together a solid race.”
On the women’s side, the Eagles earned eight event wins and 36 NCAA B cut times over the three-day meet, finishing third with 1,704 points, trailing No. 2 Eastern Michigan University with 2,046 points and front-runner Denison with 2,479 points.
On the first day of competition, senior Fiona Muir secured Emory’s only event win in the 50-yard freestyle with an NCAA-qualifying time of 22.98. The team racked up plenty of B cuts, including both the 200-yard freestyle relay and 400-yard medley relay.
On the second day, the Eagles picked up the pace, winning four of the seven events. Individual event wins included Muir in the 200-yard freestyle, sophomore Lucy Daro in the 100-yard butterfly and freshman Clio Hancock in the 400-yard individual medley (IM).
The Eagles, maintaining third position throughout the first two days of the competition, could not move up the ranks, and finished the final day at Denison in third place.
“To finish the 100 free and see Emory with the first three finishes was amazing and could not be more of a testament to all of the training we have been putting in for races like those,” Muir said of the team’s performance.
More exceptional individual performances came from Muir with a 49.50 win in the 100-yard freestyle and junior Maria Turcanu with a 2:02.22 win in the 200-yard butterfly. Additionally, Muir and Daro, along with seniors Hannah Lally and Meg Taylor, secured the first-place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
“We’ve been training really hard this semester, so I was just focusing on my technique and finishing the race strong,” Turcanu added.
The Eagles return to action after winter break on Jan. 11 at Florida Southern College.
Freshman swimmer Clio Hancock races at the Denison Invitational, held between Nov. 29 and Dec. 1. Hancock won the 400-yard individual medley at the invitational.
