Women’s swimming places sixth in Ivy League Championships

After competing in three days of competition in the Ivy League Championships in Cambridge, Mass. this weekend, the women’s swimming and diving team placed sixth in the Ancient Eight, to conclude its season. Princeton was named the 2010 Ivy League Champion with a final score of 1465, while Harvard came in second with 1438, and Yale placed third with 1350.

Throughout the three days of competition, different events were held on each day, with preliminary races swam in the mornings, and finals held in the evenings.

On Friday, the first day of competition, many of the Lions came out strong, with the relay team of Lacey Harris-Coble, Christina Hughes, Ashley MacLean, and Katie Meili taking sixth place overall in the 200 free relay. Achieving her season-best time, sophomore Paige Endsley scored 14th overall with a time of 4:59.66 in the 500 free. Freshman Meili, who swam for the first time in the championships, achieved her lifetime-best time in the 50 free of 23.50 in the preliminaries and even improved on this time in the final, finishing in fifth place with a time of 23.38.

The Lions headed into their second day of competition ranked fifth overall. The second day consisted of morning preliminaries in the 400 IM, the 100 fly, the 200 free, the 100 breast, and the 100 back, and in the evening, finals of those events, as well as the 1000 free, the 3-meter diving finals, the 200 medley relay, and the 800 free relay.

In the 100 breast, Meili placed second, with a time of 1:02.31, which set a new record for Columbia, qualified her for the NCAA B cut, and earned her second-team all-Ivy honors. In the 100 back, senior Delghi Urubshurow also scored points for the Lions with her eighth-place finish in the finals with a time of 57.06. Urubshurow’s squad of Mariele Dunn, Allison Hobbes, and Meili finished fifth in the 200 medley relay in 1:43.85, raking in points for the Light Blue once again. At the end of the day, the Lions were still in fifth place and had a total of 498 points.

Columbia finished out the weekend’s competition with many strong finishes. Dunn and Meili swam exceptionally well in the 200 breast, achieving NCAA B cut times. Dunn took second with a time of 2:14.13, while Meili finished fourth in 2:15.33. In the championship finals of the 200 back, senior Urubshurow placed eighth for the Light Blue, with a time of 2:04.17, and in the final race of the meet, the squad of Meili, Urubshurow, Endsley and Hughes finished in 3:28.79, taking seventh place in the event and adding many points to the team’s score.

The final score for the Lions was 692.5, good for sixth place, above Brown with 601.5, and Dartmouth with 585.5. Awards given out at the meet included “Swimmer of the Meet,” which went to Yale’s Susan Kim, “Diver of the Meet,” awarded to Yale’s Rachel Rosenberg, “Career High Point Swimmer,” which went to Princeton’s Alicia Aemisegger, and “Career High Point Diver,” awarded to Brown’s Kim Olko.

As this was the final competition for the women’s swim team, the athletes will have a break from practices until after spring break, when they will begin training five days a week in preparation for next season.