The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams completed another dominant season in conference play, as both squads claimed their 15th-straight University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship Titles on Saturday night.
“We’re probably the only team in the UAA who doesn’t treat the UAA championships as a destination meet,” Head Coach Jon Howell said. “Our ultimate goal is to perform to the best of our ability.”
The men finished with a final score of 1,818.5 points, with Carnegie Mellon University (1,300 points) in second and the University of Chicago (1,230.5 points) took third place.
The women ended the meet with a final tally of 1,955 points, to defeat second-place University of Chicago (1,435 points) and third-place Washington University in St. Louis (1,219.5 points).
Along with claiming the Championship Titles, senior Anna Dobben was named the UAA Swimmer of the Year. Dobben claimed conference titles in the 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard backstroke, 200-yard freestyle relay, 800-yard freestyle relay, and 400-yard freestyle relay. Dobben also finished in second place in the 100-yard freestyle.
The Eagles also were awarded with both the men’s and women’s Rookie of the Year finalists.
Freshman Andrew Wilson claimed the men’s honor after winning conference titles in the 100-yard breaststroke, 200-yard breaststroke, 400-yard medley relay and 200-yard medley relay.
“Andrew performed exceptionally,” Howell said. “He had a couple of A-cut times and UAA records and really had a breakthrough meet.”
Freshman Elizabeth Aronoff won the women’s award after her winning performance in the 100-yard breaststroke and a second-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke.
Emory finished the 2013 UAA Championships with a combined total of 16 individual titles and nine relay championships. The teams also tallied a total of 44 all-UAA honors.
Together, the men and women’s squads set UAA records in nine of the events and pool records in 15 of them. They also recorded five NCAA ‘A’ cut times, 94 NCAA ‘B’ cut times, and four NCAA qualifying diving scores.
During the final day of competition, the women collected UAA titles in four of the individual events and one relay race. In the 1,650-yard freestyle, freshman Mikayla Carnley’s ‘B’ cut time of 17:05.37 gave her the victory in the event, while senior Taryn Lushinsky claimed first in the 200-yard backstroke.
Lushinsky’s ‘A’ cut time of 2:01.05 was not only good for first place, but also set a pool record. Freshman Ellie Thompson finished right behind Lushinsky with a provisional qualifying time of 2:02.66 to take second place in the event.
Sophomores Nancy Larson and Anna Dobben also added to the team’s achievements with their performances in the 100-yard freestyle. Larson won the event with a ‘B’ cut time of 51.50 seconds, while Dobben took second with her time of 51.39 seconds in the preliminaries.
The women dominated in the 200-yard breastroke, where they swept the all-UAA. Sophomore Megan Beach claimed the crown with her mark of 2:18.95, while freshman Elizabeth Aronoff (2:19.68) and junior Kylie McKenzie (2:20.82) placed second and third, respectively.
Emory concluded the meet in the 400-yard freestyle relay, where the team of senior Renee Rosenkranz, Larson, senior Ann Wolber and Dobben took first place in the race with an ‘A’ cut time of 3:25.87, which was also a pool record.
On the men’s side, there were also several dominating outings from a number of the swimmers on the final day of competition as the Eagles claimed a pair of conference titles in individual races.
In the 200-yard breaststroke, Wilson finished first with a pool and conference-record time of 2:02.51 in the preliminaries. Senior Peter O’Brien also competed in the event, earning an all-UAA finish and placing third with a time of 2:04.96. Senior Miller Douglas gave the Eagles their second individual UAA Title with his performance in the 200-yard butterfly, where he finished with an ‘A’ cut time and pool-record time of 1:49.80.
Junior Matt O’Brien took third place in the event with a time of 1:51.06 in the preliminaries.
The relay team of sophomore Andrew Dillinger, Peter O’Brien, freshman Matt Kuhlik and junior Ross Spock won the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:04.32) to give the Eagles they fifth relay title of the meet.
Other Eagles who earned all-UAA honors with a top-three finish and record an NCAA provisional qualifying time on the final day of competition were junior Annabel Enquist, senior Leslie Hacker, sophomore Nina Zook, freshman Eagan Zettlemoyer, and freshman Jared Scheuer. Enquist finished in third in the women’s one-meter dive (417.00), while Hacker and Zook claimed second and third, respectively, in the women’s 200-yard butterfly.
Zettlemoyer recorded a third-place finish in the men’s 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 16:08.65 and Scheuer placed second in the men’s 200-yard backstroke (1:51.04) Emory’s 15-consecutive win streak dates back to the 1998-99 season, which was Head Coach Jon Howell’s first campaign with the team. The conference titles were the 21st overall for the women and 15th overall for the men.
With the UAA Championships now behind them, the squads will send a group of swimmers to the Univeristy of Chicago for the Midwest Invitational on Friday and Saturday. This meet will give the Eagles one more chance to qualify for next month’s NCAA Championships.
– By Elizabeth Weinstein
The Emory Wheel was founded in 1919 and is currently the only independent, student-run newspaper of Emory University. The Wheel publishes weekly on Wednesdays during the academic year, except during University holidays and scheduled publication intermissions.
The Wheel is financially and editorially independent from the University. All of its content is generated by the Wheel’s more than 100 student staff members and contributing writers, and its printing costs are covered by profits from self-generated advertising sales.
