Despite a night where the Emory University swimming & diving team won a pair of conference titles and added three runner-up performances, the Eagles were overtaken in the overall team standings as the University Athletic Association Championships continued Friday in Atlanta.
The Violets of New York University erased a 22-point deficit on night three of the Championships and will take an 18-point lead into the fourth and final day of competition on Saturday. NYU has compiled 1,253 points across the three days of action with the Eagles sitting in second place at 1,235 points. It is just a two-team race going into the meet finale as Chicago looks on in third with 876.5 points and WashU rounds out the top half with 717 points to own the fourth position.
Junior Meredith Liu opened the evening session by recording Emory's first All-UAA finish of the evening. As the lone representative in the 400 IM, Liu was the event's runner-up as she registered a time of 4:24.32. Thursday's big winner, freshman Caitlin Crysel, followed with a sixth-place finish in the 100 Fly as she paced four Eagles that finished between the sixth and ninth spots.
Graduate student Penelope Helm collected the team's second runner-up finish of the night as she won silver in the 200 Freestyle. Helm topped eight Eagles inside the top 18 as Emory had its biggest scoring binge of the night in the event. Helm touched at 1:48.73 in the finals as she was the lone Eagle to go under 1:50.00 during finals.
Emory came through with its first event title in the fourth event on Friday when sophomore Katie Cohen claimed gold in the 100 Breaststroke. Cohen was one of two Eagles inside the top five as she posted a winning time of 1:02.47 with freshman Maddy Lu taking fifth at 1:04.14.
The 100 Backstroke saw the Eagles take a pair of All-UAA finishes as graduate student Megan Jungers won silver with a time of 54.44 with junior Penny Celtnieks going for bronze at 55.09. Junior Isabel Huang came in fifth with a time of 56.45 and classmate Jane Sanderson finished sixth at 56.90 as the Eagles had a strong showing in the event.
Emory closed out the evening with another highlight as both relay teams in the 200 Medley won their respective races. The group of Jungers, Cohen, Crysel and senior Ava Kennedy came through with Emory's first relay title of the meet, turning in a winning time of 1:41.52. In the consolation final, the team consisting of Celtnieks, Lu and sophomores Maren McDonald and Natalie Boorjian combined to post a winning mark of 1:43.56.
The Eagles, looking for their 26th consecutive UAA Championship and 32nd overall, will shoot for the podium finish once more on Saturday with a final day slate featuring the women's 1-meter, 1,650 Freestyle, 200 Backstroke, 100 Freestyle, 200 Breaststroke, 200 Butterfly and the 400 Freestyle Relay.
