From NYU Athletics

New York University's women's swimming & diving team finished in ninth place at the NCAA Division III Championships, a meet that was held Wednesday-Saturday, March 18-21, at the Conroe CISD Natatorium in Shenandoah, TX.

The Violets accumulated 116 points in the 54-team competition. Emory University won the championship with 603 points.

Over the four-day meet, new NYU team records were set in the 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle, 100-yard breaststroke, 200-yard breaststroke, 200-yard freestyle relay, 200-yard medley relay, 400-yard freestyle relay, and 800-yard freestyle relay.

Senior captain Emily Doerner, freshman Allegra Ingerson, freshman Amber Hunter, and freshman Isabelle Kitze placed second in the 400-yard freestyle relay consolation finals on Saturday night for a 10th-place overall finish. Their time of 3:26.96 earned the foursome All-American Honorable Mention accolades and bested the team record of 3:27.21 which they set in the morning's preliminary session.

"I think overall we had a very successful meet, and I think we've learned that success isn't just defined by better times necessarily," said Kitze. "We've learned that success is essentially growing as an athlete and as a person. It was spectacular to see the range of people at this meet, especially because this is the most athletes that NYU has ever brought to championships. It shed a lot of light on the future generations of swimmers that we'll have, and I'm really excited to see how the team grows next year."

HIGHLIGHTS FROM PRELIMINARIES:

- Doerner (51.65) and Kitze (51.93) competed in the 100-yard freestyle, placing 25th and 29th respectively. The senior's time broke the previous team record of 51.71 which Kitze set earlier this season.

- Sophomore Katie Webber also broke a team record in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:21.08), placing 18th overall. The previous NYU record was 2:23.08, which Webber set earlier this season. Fellow sophomore Elise Gibbs also participated in this event, finishing in 19th place (2:21.13).

"I'm pretty excited that we finished in the top 10," said Head Coach Trevor Miele. "We couldn't have swam any better and we had a really great weekend. They busted their butts from day one, and it's really great to see that pay off. I'm really proud of them all, especially our seniors."