ITHACA, N.Y. – Competing against 10 other schools, the Ithaca College women's swimming & diving program co-hosted the first day of the 12^th Annual Bomber Invitational on Friday evening in the Kelsey Partridge Bird Natatorium. This year the women are competing against the University of Rochester, Hartwick College, Alfred University, Middlebury College, Hamilton College, Nazareth College, Smith College, Vassar College, Susquehanna University and Union College.

Ithaca (449) sit in first after the first evening ahead of both Hamilton College (350) and the University of Rochester (311).

The Bombers saw a pair of strong performances in the first event of the evening, the 500-yard freestyle which saw a pair of top-5 finishers. Junior Kerry O'Brien recorded a season-best time finishing third and touching the final wall with a time of 5:17.27. Finishing right behind her in fourth place was Alex Eakin who put together a time of 5:17.42, which also was a season-best for the first year. Hamiton's Emma Robinson earned first-place winning her respective heat with a time of 5:13.22.

The next competition of the evening was the 200-yard IM which saw a highlight for IC with an outstanding swim coming from first year Kathleen Papiernik. She not only bested the field in the eighth and final heat of the event, but her time of 2:09.84 was good for first place overall. Joining Papiernik in the top-5 was Angela Merch who was third with a season-best time of 2:10.60.

First year Samantha Bender displayed her individual pace in the 50-yard freestyle as she came up with a second-place finish with a time of 24.25 which earned the Bombers 28 team points. Hamilton's Jade Matthias was the top finisher in the event as she put together a time of 23.94. Sierra Houck earned a 10^th place finish with her time of 24.85.

In diving action, competitors competed on the 1-meter boards on Friday evening as the Bombers had six different student-athletes finish within the top-10. Kailee Payne won the event over teammate Abby Marraccino with Payne totaling an 11-dive final score of 278.20 ahead of Marraccino who totaled 275.95. Angela Burke (473.05) finished fourth, Audrey Scott (434.35) sixth, Jenell Slesser (425.05) was seventh and Eliza Salus totaled 416.65, which was good for eighth.

It was a nail-biting thrilling finish in the 200-yard medley relays as Hamilton College's foursome won the event with a time of 1:47.07, but both Ithaca and Middlebury would touch the final wall at the exact same time of 1:47.61 to tie for second. Katie Champagne, Spencer Carroll, Kathleen Papiernik and Samantha Bender teamed in the competition as they shaved over a second off their previous best result this season.

The Bombers are back in action tomorrow with day two of the Bomber Invitational, starting at 10 a.m. with the 200 freestyle relay. The 400 IM, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle and 400 medley relay will wrap up the morning session. Diving then begins at 1 p.m. with the 1-meter before breaking for the afternoon.

The evening session is slated to begin at 6 p.m. with the 200-yard butterfly, followed by the 100-yard backstroke, 100-yard breaststroke and 800-yard freestyle relay.