For the 25th consecutive season, the Emory University women's swimming & diving team won the University Athletic Association championship as the conference meet come to an end Saturday night at the University of Chicago. The championship is the 31st overall in the history of the program.
Heading into Saturday, the Eagles held a 59.5-point advantage over the host Maroons but a final night that was showcased by three event titles and nine All-UAA performances helped Emory win the meet by 270 points. Across the four days in Chicago, the Eagles amassed 1,744 team points compared to Chicago's 1,574 points. New York University finished third at 1,482 points and WashU was fourth at 1,162.
After day three ended with back-to-back championships in the 100 Backstroke and 200 Medley Relay, the Eagles maintained that winning pedigree by winning three of the first four events of the night.
Senior Sloane Donovan captured her second-straight UAA title in the 1,650 Freestyle, leading four Emory swimmers that finished inside the top-five. Donovan boasted a time of 16:50.52 as she won the event by over 10 seconds. Sophomore Morgan Main secured the silver position at 17:00.83 and junior Jada Chatoor earned bronze at 17:02.55. Sophomore Meredith Liu took fifth with a time of 17:13.91.
The 200 Backstroke featured similar dominance with the Eagles sweeping the three All-UAA spots and saw four Emory athletes place inside the top-seven. Senior Megan Jungers won her second event championship of the week as she went under two minutes at 1:59.64 followed by sophomore Isabel Huang in second at 2:00.62 and sophomore Jane Sanderson in third at 2:00.82. Fellow sophomore Penny Celtnieks was seventh with a time of 2:03.27.
The 100 Freestyle saw the Eagles exert some of their depth with six reaching the finals. Senior Penelope Helm led the group of six across the three finals as he she placed sixth with a time of 51.62. Sophomore Claire DePiero won the B final at 52.01 and in the C final, freshman Natalie Boorjian recorded a winning mark of 52.04.
Freshman Katie Cohen broke through in the 200 Breaststroke after finishing as the runner-up in the 100 Breaststroke on Friday. Cohen and senior Fiona Arwood claimed the top two positions for the Eagles with Cohen at 2:17.42 and Arwood at 2:18.06. Junior Ali Kaiser rounded out the A finalist as she touched sixth with a time of 2:21.59.
Junior Sarah Daly was Emory's top finisher in the final individual event of the week as she earned fourth in the 200 Fly at 2:03.76. The final All-UAA performance was turned in by Helm, Huang, Celtnieks and Sanderson in the 400 Freestyle Relay as the group finished as the runner-up at 3:24.37.
The 400 Freestyle Relay finish brought the Eagles' conference total for the week to 22 top-three finishes to go along with six event titles.
