ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College women's swimming & diving program collected a total of 486 team points as they lead the pack after the first day of the 2023 Liberty League Swimming & Diving Championships. For the second-straight year, the Bombers earned the lead after the Wednesday session as they easily surpassed the 343 points that were earned a season ago. Swimmers competed in the 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard IM, 50-yard freestyle and the 200-yard medley relay while the divers took part in the 3-meter diving competition.
Erin Kiley got things started for the Bombers scoring a third-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle as she touched the final wall with a time of 5:07.83.
Josephine Holman was also in the top-10 coming in eighth with a record time of 5:17.94.
The Bombers top finisher in the 200-yard IM was
Angela Merch who swam to a time of 2:09.72 in the evening finals session, which was good for sixth. It was an outstanding finish for IC in the vaunted 50-yard freestyle as
Jane Pfeufer and
Emily VanderSleen finished first and second, respectively while also besting the previous Liberty League Championship record in the event. In the neck and neck dual, Pfeufer finished the A-final at 23.42 with VanderSleen right behind her at 23.48.
Ithaca would go on to dominate the 3-meter diving competition with
Karalyn Pawcio taking home first-place with a finals score of 489.55. In second was
Abby Marraccino (478.20) who dueled it out with her teammated all evening long. They were followed by
Jenell Slesser (450.45),
Rachel Lange (445.15) and
Eliza Salus rounded out the top-5 with a score of 429.70.
The IC relay team started off the LL Championship with a bang as they came close to breaking the record in the event on the way to a first-place finish over the four swimmers from RPI.
Sonia Mlakar,
Abigail Ignagni,
Emily VanderSleen and
Jane Pfeufer teamed up to put together a time of 1:44.88, the record which was placed in 2018 still stands at 1:44.62.
Day two of competition continues tomorrow with swimming preliminaries at 10 a.m., diving preliminaries at 1 p.m. and finals for both at 6 p.m. The day will begin with the 200 freestyle relay, followed by the 400 IM, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle and 400 medley relay. On the boards will be the men's 1-meter dive.
