RESULTS

ITHACA, N.Y. – Ava Lowell won on the 1-meter diving boards on Thursday evening highlighting IC finishes to help the Ithaca women's swimming & diving team remain in first-place after the second day of the Liberty League Championships. Competition will resume Friday morning for swimming preliminaries at the Kelsey Partridge Bird Natatorium. The Bombers remain in first totaling 846 team points with RIT second with 687 and RPI third with 586.

It was a heavyweight showdown to begin the evening races between the Ithaca and RIT relay teams. Seeded as the top two programs after the morning prelims in the 200-yard freestyle relays they didn't disappoint in a photo finish. RIT bested the Bombers team of Abigail Ignagni, Anna Rubino, Jane Pfeufer and Emily VanderSleen by 0:0.01. The Tigers recorded a time of 1:36.52 compared to the finals time of 1:36.53 turned in by IC.

The 400-yard IM was the first individual event of the evening that swimmers competed in with Anna Peshanko taking home first-place with a recorded time of 4:32.20. The top finisher for Ithaca was Jenna Molnar who slotted fifth with a finals time of 4:23.23.

Next, swimmers competed in the 100-yard butterfly where RPI's Coleen Whittaker won the race with a finals time of 56.18, which set a new Liberty League Championships record in the event. The top finisher in third for Ithaca was Emily VanderSleen who finished the fly in 58.07.

Maggie Wenger from St. Lawrence University outswam the field to be crowned the champion in the 200-yard freestyle winning the event with a finals time of 1:51.87. Morgan Hoffman-Smith raced to a fifth-place finish touching the final wall in 1:56.98.

The divers competed on the 1-meter board on Thursday evening and it was an outstanding showing for Ithaca with Ava Lowell, Karalyn Pawcio, Eliana Wallock, Rachel Lange, Janell Slesser and Abby Marraccino each qualifying for the evenings finals. Ava Lowell won the event with a finals score of 489.55 over Karalyn Pawcio (463.80), Eliana Wallock (452.45) and Rachel Lange (452.40).

The Bombers put together a fourth-place finish in the final event of the evening, the 400-yard medley relay. IC compiled a time of 3:57.69 and RPI was able to win the event by finishing in 3:52.51.
The Liberty League championships continue tomorrow with the 200-yard butterfly, 100-yard backstroke, 100-yard breaststroke, men's 1-meter diving and the 800-yard freestyle relay. Swimming preliminaries begin at 10 a.m., followed by diving preliminaries at 1 p.m. and finals for both at 6 p.m.