Ithaca in Fifth After First Day of NCAA Championships
Prelim Results (PDF) | Final Results (PDF)
SHENENDOAH, TEXAS – The Ithaca College women's swimming team had a fantastic start to the 2017 NCAA Championships in Shenendoah, Texas, on Wednesday. The Bombers posted four All-American performances on the day, while they currently sit in fifth in the team standings with 48 team points.
Highlighting the day's action were two First-Team All-America performances. Senior
Grace Ayer posted a seventh-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley, while junior
Nickie Griesemer finished as the National Runner-Up in the three-meter springboard.
Ithaca's other excellent performances came in the 50-yard freestyle and the 200-yard medley relay. Senior
Lake Duffy finished in 16
th-place to earn Honorable Mention All-America honors in the freestyle sprint. She joined Ayer, junior
Jaclyn Pecze and senior
Samantha Reilly to help the 200-yard medley relay team earn Honorable Mention All-American standing with a ninth-place finish.
The Bombers got their national-meet program underway in the third event of the day, as Ayer hit the pool for the individual medley. The senior finished second in her prelim heat and seventh overall during the morning session with a time of 2:03.85. She maintained the same placement during the evening session, falling slightly off her prelim pace with a 2:04.03 in the championship final.
Duffy followed a similar blue print in the 50 free. She hit the wall in 23.53 during the morning session, snagging the final qualifying spot for the consolation race in the evening. She marked a 23.99 during the evening to finish 16
th overall.
Ithaca's top performance on the day came in the diving well, as
Nickie Griesemer finished as the National Runner-Up in the three-meter springboard. The IC junior held the top score out of the prelim session, leading Vivian Zhou of MIT by 13.15 points heading into the night session. However, Maura Sticco-Ivins of Wellesley College, who sat in fourth after the morning session, overcame the 26.25 point margin to win the National Title during the night session with a 504.00. Griesemer took second with a score of 497.20.
Also seeing action in the diving well were juniors
Katie Helly and
Lindsey Suddaby. Both narrowly missed out on the Top-16 to make the consolation final and Honorable Mention All-America honors. Helly finished 18
th with a score of 384.00, while Suddaby marked a 377.85 to come in 19
th place. Both divers will join Griesemer for the one-meter springboard on Friday.
Rounding out the day's action was the 200-yard medley relay. The Bombers relay team posted a 1:44.10 in the preliminary session, just barely coming up short of making the Top-8. IC won its consolation heat with a 1:43.38, which set new team and UNYSCSA/Empire 8 association records. Ayer marked her backstroke leg in 26.56, while Reilly swam the breaststroke leg in 27.97. Pecze marked a 25.57 in the butterfly, while Duffy brought things home with a 23.28 freestyle leg.
Ithaca returns to the pool on Thursday with both the 200-yard freestyle relay and 400-yard medley relay races.