ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College women's swimming & diving program wrapped up the 12^th Annual Bomber Invitational on Sunday as the team were crowned champions besting the 10 other schools across the three-day invite. The Bombers racked up 1,468 team points ahead of Hamilton College (1,415) and Middlebury College were third totaling 1,386.5 points.

The Bombers saw two place within the top-five of the 1,650 freestyle with Ava Palfreyman claiming third with a time of 18:04.30 and right behind her in fourth touching the final wall with a recorded time of 18:07.57. Swimmers would show off their speed for one final time in the 100-yard freestyle. Angela Merch won the event besting the field with a season-best time of 53.03. Solid finishes were also turned in by Smantha Bender who was third coming home with a time of 53.28 and in fourth with a time of 53.57 was Naomi Fry.

IC saw an exciting one-two finish in the 38^th event of the invite, which was the 200-yard backstroke. Katie Champagne put together a season-best time of 2:06.92 and right behind her in second was Samantha Bender (2:07.59) as the pair earned valuable team points that helped secure the team win.

Kathleen Papiernik exceeded her seed time coming into the 200-yard breaststroke and her recorded time of 2:26.99 was good for sixth. The final event of the invite was the 400-yard freestyle relay and Angela Merch, Kathleen Papiernik, Samantha Bender and Naomi Fry teamed together to form the "A" relay and they finished second with a finals heat time of 3:32.86.

The Bombers will head south for their winter trip where select swimmers will compete in the CSCAA Open Water National Championships, which is hosted by FIU in Miami, Fla. on December 17. The program will then be off for the holiday break before returning to action in a dual meet at Hamilton College on January 13.