WORCESTER, MASS – Binghamton came into day two of the 2015 America East Swimming & Diving Championship with a slim lead over the two-time defending conference champions, New Hampshire Wildcats. The team’s came into Friday looking to better position themselves before the big weekend with proficient performances in the day’s events: the 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard individual medley, 50-yard freestyle, and 200-yard freestyle relay.
In the 500-yard freestyle prelims, New Hampshire took the top three spots. Freshman Jessica Harper took the prelims top spot in 4:50.64, senior Oneida Cooper came in second (4:52.48), and fellow freshman Bridget Miller closed out the top three (4:58.91).
The Wildcats also saw a swimmer take the 200-yard individual medley preliminaries. Senior Katherine Mann set the pace with a new season best time of 1:59.57, but UMBC’s sophomore Emily Escobedo, last year’s America East championship’s Most Outstanding Swimmer, was chomping at her heels, finishing just eight-hundredths of a second behind (1:59.69).
A championship record fell in the preliminary round of the 50-yard freestyle race; Binghamton senior Caitlin Kelly broke the mark with a swift time of 23.06. Her time just edged out former Wildcat Mallory Morrell, who swam a 23.07 in 2010 as part of the 200-yard freestyle relay.
Friday's night action began with the 500-yard freestyle final. Mirroring the prelims, New Hampshire took the top three spots. Miller took third (4:58.91), Cooper repeated in second (4:53.49), and Harper took the top spot in 4:50.25.
The 200-yard IM was a nail biter, and in the end, it was Escobedo of UMBC who touched the wall first to take the top spot on the podium. The sophomore eked out the Mann, the prelims winner, by 38-hundreths of a second, finishing in 1:59.10. Her pace set a new record for the WPI pool, and rewrote the America East Championship record as well. Mann had set the previous conference mark of 1:59.12 at last year’s championship.
Binghamton saw their senior speedster win the 50-yard freestyle for the second consecutive year. After setting a new conference championship record in the prelim, Kelly won the final event in 23.13, just five-hundredths of a second ahead of New Hampshire freshman Elizaveta Baykova (21.18).
The final event of the day was the 200-yard freestyle relay. The Wildcats capped their successful day winning the event in 1:33.91. The quartet of Baykova, Sara Broderick, Bettina Caspersen, and Cooper caroled the 40 points for New Hampshire. Vermont took second place (1:34.08), and UMBC finished in third (1:34.67).
After day two, here are the team rankings through seven events.
1. University of New Hampshire: 288
2. UMBC: 240
3. University of Vermont: 234
4. Binghamton University: 207
5. University of Maine: 140
Tomorrow’s preliminary action begins at 10:00 AM with the women’s three-meter dive. Watch the champioship live on AmericaEast.TV, and follow the results at championship central on AmericaEast.com.