ITHACA, N.Y. – In arguably the busiest day of the four-day Liberty League Swimming & Diving Championship that featured the 200-yard medley relay, 200-yard butterfly, 100-yard backstroke, 100-yard breaststroke and the 800-yard freestyle relay on Friday. Ithaca College remain atop the team standings having now totaled 1,171 and are followed by RPI (1,030), RIT (920), Skidmore College (633) and rounding out the top five is Vassar College who has collected 482 team points.
 
The Bombers recorded well-rounded performances on the penultimate day of the 2025 Liberty League Swimming & Diving Championships, hosted on campus in the Kelsey Partridge Bird Natatorium. The evening began with the 200-yard medley relay that was won by RIT who recorded an association record and an NCAA B-cut time of 1:43.93. Samantha Bender, Sydney Koehler, Kathleen Papiernik and Spencer Carroll would team and score a second-place finish as they recorded a time of 1:45.71.
 
RPI's Hannah Goodard touched first in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:06.09, while two Bombers — sophomore Kathleen Papiernik and first year Elizabeth Bodie — clinched second and third with times of 2:08.67 and 2:08.68, respectively. 
 
Two Bombers competed in the 100-yard backstroke "A final", one of which took the podium. Sophomore Samantha Bender earned a second-place spot with a time of 58.25 while junior Elke Beaumont took fourth place with a time of 59.00. RIT's Rose LaDue defended her title in the event from 2024 and finished first with a time of 56.41, which surpassed an NCAA B-cut.
 
The 100-yard breaststroke final saw three Bomber competitors. First year Sydney Koehler swam her way to the podium with a third place finish at 1:05.57. Her teammates, sophomore Spencer Carroll and junior Emma Kidd finished in sixth and eighth place with times of 1:07.23 and 1:07.71, respectively. 
 
In the final race of the evening, the 800-yard freestyle relay, the Bombers recorded their most impressive performance of the day. Ithaca's relay team clinched first place in the event by about five seconds with a time of 7:40.65. The Bombers closest competitor was the Vassar Brewers who earned second place with a time of 7:45.30. Earning those valuable 64 team points for IC was Naomi Fry, Kathleen Papiernik, Ava Palfreyman and Samantha Bender.
 
The final day of the Liberty League Championship will continue with morning prelims at 10 a.m., diving at 1 p.m. and the finals session at 6 p.m. tomorrow, Feb. 22, with the 1,650, 400 freestyle relay and 100-yard freestyle finals, 200-yard backstroke final, 200-yard breaststroke final, and the women's 3-meter diving final.