Day 2 at NCAA Championship

3/16/2017 11:12:00 PM

Complete Results (PDF)

SHENENDOAH, TEXAS – The Ithaca College and Stevens Institute of Technology women's swimming and diving athletes returned to the Conroe ISD Natatorium for the second day of the 2017 NCAA Division III Championships on Thursday.

The Bombers had an abbreviated schedule with just its four qualifying swimmers in action for the 200-yard freestyle relay and 400-yard medley relay races.

Stevens Danielle Caruso began the second day of competition with an optional entry in the 200-yard freestyle. Entering the race ranked 25th, she finished 13th in the preliminary heat, and 15th in the championship race, with a final time of 1:51.47, besting her qualifying time. Caruso missed out on a top-10 finish by less than two seconds.

Sarah Jurczyk's second race of the championship meet was the 100-yard butterfly, in which the Williamsburg, Virginia native was seeded third. Qualifying for the championship race with a preliminary heat time of 55.80, Jurczyk finished 14th with a time of 56.06 seconds.
 
The highlight of the day came in the 400-yard medley relay, as Ithaca improved five slots from its original seed time coming into the National Championships to finish 12^th overall. The Bombers marked a 3:49.30 during the morning session, which punched their ticket to the consolation finals at night.
 
It was a historic swim on multiple levels for IC during the evening race. The quartet of Grace Ayer, Samantha Reilly, Jaclyn Pecze and Lake Duffy cut nearly two full seconds off its prelim time to mark a 3:47.48, coming in 12^th place overall and fourth in the consolation heat. The time was a new Ithaca program record, while it came just 16 one-hundredths of a second shy of tying the UNYSCSA Association record. The record was not the only one to fall during the race, as Ayer set a new program best in the 100-yard backstroke to kick-off the race. She swam a four-length split of 56.37, easily smashing her 56.59 from the UNYSCSA Championships last month.
 
The IC foursome also appeared in the 200-yard freestyle relay during the morning. IC placed 20^th in the race with a 1:35.81.