The Emory University swimming & diving teams capped off their two-day Fall Invitational on Saturday with the Eagles holding on to their first place positions for the weekend sweep. The Emory Fall Invitational was being held at the Madeleine Jude Brown Aquatic Center in Atlanta with the Eagles serving as hosts to Carson-Newman, Wingate, Georgia Southern and SCAD.
After registering 12 event wins on Friday, the Eagles continued to showcase their talents Saturday morning as Emory athletes combined for 11 more victories. At the conclusion of the meet, the Emory men posted a winning score of 707 points while the women came through with 780 points to outpace the field. Saturday's session also saw the Emory caps record 17 additional NCAA B Cuts.
Six of the event wins came from the women including four individual event winners. Sophomore Caitlin Crysel picked up her second win of the meet with a winning mark of 23.76 in the 50 Freestyle. Adding wins were senior Penny Celtnieks in the 100 Backstroke (54.99), junior Katie Cohen in the 200 Breaststroke (2:18.16) and freshman Emma Lunn in the 200 Freestyle (1:50.45).
Celtnieks and Crysel teamed up for a win in the 200 Medley Relay along with Maddy Lu and Allison Greeneway, touching at 1:42.50, and in the 400 Freestyle Relay, Crysel swam leadoff and was followed by Elodie Mitchell, Avery Sammons and Sammi Thiele for a winning effort as the group combined for 3:25.29.
Senior Henri Bonnault highlighted the Emory men on Saturday as he collected his second win of the meet as he completed the Breaststroke sweep with a top time of 1:58.45 in the 200. He was joined by fellow event winners Crow Thorsen, who took first in the 400 IM at 3:56.25, and sophomore Ben Pritchard in the mile (15:46.79). Additionally, sophomore Solly Berkenwald and freshman Thomas Stone both had strong efforts in the all-Emory 1-meter event with Berkenwald scoring 492.00 and Stone notching 458.33.
The Eagles added a win in the day's first event, the 200 Medley Relay, with Bonnault, Colin Zexter, Patrick Horton and Jared Zhang combining for a winning time of 1:27.28.
Eleven of the 17 NCAA B Cuts came from the women's meet as the Eagles had standout performances across the board. Cohen paced a trio of Eagles with NCAA qualifying marks inside the top three in the 200 Breaststroke and in the 200 Freestyle, Lunn and junior Katherine Swan led five Eagles at the front.
Emory now turns its attention to its December multi-day meets with select swimmers headed to Granville, Ohio for the Denison Invitation between December 4-6 while the divers will travel to Cambridge, MA for the MIT Invitational between December 5-7.
