ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College women's swimming and diving team remain in first place following the third day of the 2024 Liberty League Swimming & Diving Championships. Through three days, the Bombers have racked up 1,018 team points, which is just ahead of second-place RIT who has totaled 1,017 and in third is RPI with 955 team points.
The first event on Friday was the 200-yard butterfly that saw Ithaca's
Kathleen Papiernik put together a time of 2:10.45 during her prelims as she was even stronger during the evenings finals as she was second touching the final wall with a time of 2:07.91. RPI first year Hannah Goddard put together a strong race winning it with an NCAA B-Cut time of 2:04.48.
Katie Champagne earned a fifth-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke putting together a time of 58.76 as that was also better than her prelim time of 59.87. Winning the race was RIT first year Rose LaDue who put together a finals time of 57.07. Anna Peshenko won the 100-yard breaststroke with a finals time of 1:05.12, which bested teammate Sam Russell (1:05.19). The top IC finisher was first year
Spencer Carroll who came in seventh with a recorded time of 1:07.92.
In event 29, the 800-yard freestyle relay it proved to be an exciting finish down to the final 25 yards. RIT's relay squad ended up producing an NCAA B-Cut time of 7:39.28 to just beat out the Ithaca group of
Angela Merch,
Naomi Fry,
Kathleen Papiernik and
Samantha Bender who finished in second place with a time of 7:39.36. That time of 7:39.36 reset the Ithaca women's swimming & diving record for the 800-yard freestyle relay.
The 2024 Liberty League Championships finish up tomorrow with the 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard backstroke, 200-yard breaststroke, 400-yard freestyle relay, 1,650-yard freestyle and women's 3-meter diving. Swimming preliminaries begin at 10 a.m., followed by diving preliminaries at 1 p.m. and finals for both at 6 p.m.
