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Cindy Cheng, Emory 800 Free Relay Win National Titles on Day Three of NCAA Championships

Cindy Cheng, Emory 800 Free Relay Win National Titles on Day Three of NCAA Championships
Posted: Mar 17, 2017

From Emory University Athletics

For the third consecutive night, the Emory University Women's Swimming & Diving team swam to a national championship in at least one event, winning the 100 Backstroke and 800 Freestyle Relay.

Through three days of competition, the Eagles (471.5 points) have built a monumental lead over the rest of the field and enter the final day of action with a 144.5 point lead over second place Williams College (327). Kenyon is in third with 270 points followed by Denison with 234 points.

Emory, in search of its eighth-straight team national championship and 10th overall in program history, will look to close it out on the fourth and final day of action on Saturday with preliminaries beginning at 11:00 AM EST and finals starting at 7:00 PM EST. Events on the final day of competition include the 100 Freestyle, 200 Backstroke, 200 Breaststroke, 1,650 Freestyle and the 400 Freestyle Relay.

Junior Cindy Cheng registered her second individual national title, winning the 100 Backstroke in a photo finish at the wall. Cheng edged out teammate Caroline Olson by a fingernail to claim first place. Cheng touched in a school record time of 54.41 while Olson turned in a 54.42. Senior Claire Liu added a seventh place finish in the event with a time of 55.88.

The 800 Freestyle Relay featuring Cheng, sophomore Fiona Muir, junior Julia Wawer and senior Marissa Bergh closed out competition in impressive fashion, winning the event in a Division III record setting time. The group narrowly defeated Kenyon, winning by just .10 seconds. The team's time of 7:14.98 smashed their previous record of 7:18.05 which was set by the Eagles at last year's championships.

Junior Megan Campbell and sophomore Hannah Lally added All-American performances for Emory on the evening. Lally finished sixth overall in the 100 Breaststroke at 1:02.84 while Campbell was eighth in the 200 Butterfly at 2:04.88.

Annelise Kowalsky won the consolation final in the 100 Breaststroke in a time of 1:01.92 while sophomore Ashley Daniels was 10th overall at 1:03.05. Freshman Maria Turcan finished 10th overall in the 200 Butterfly in a time of 2:02.03.