From Emory University Athletics
The Emory University Women's Swimming and Diving team opened up to a commanding lead at the UAA Championships following an impressive showing on Thursday night, highlighted by four UAA titles and three meet records.
After two days of competition, the Eagles have a 267 point lead on the rest of the field with 674 total points. The Violets of NYU sit in second place with 407 points followed by Washington (376), Carnegie Mellon (373.5), Chicago (361), Rochester (177), Case Western Reserve (176) and Brandeis (153.5).
Senior Cindy Cheng and junior Fiona Muir led the team on the evening, repeating as conference champions in their respective events. In the 500 Freestyle, Cheng claimed her second straight title, posting a UAA record time of 4:47.94 while in the 50 Freestyle, Muir became just the second woman in Emory's history to win three straight titles in the event, improving upon her previous UAA record time at 23.05.
The Eagles added UAA titles in both relay events as well on Thursday with one win setting a new UAA top mark. Muir along with junior Meg Taylor, sophomore Caroline Olson and freshman Lucy Daro blazed to UAA record time of 1:31.93 in the 200 Freestyle Relay while Muir, Cheng, junior Ashley Danielsand sophomore Maria Kyle won the 400 Medley Relay in a time of 3:44.34. The win in the 400 Medley Relay was Emory's 11th-straight in the event and the win in the 200 Free Relay was the team's sixth-straight.
Four other Eagles registered All-UAA performances during finals with two coming in the 500 Freestyle as Emory swept the top-three finishes. Sophomore Maria Turcan came in second at 4:51.99 with senior Rebecca Upton, the 2015 event champion, finishing third at 4:55.38. In the 50 Freestyle, Taylor was just .33 seconds behind Muir to record a second place effort and in the 200 IM, senior Ming Ong touched at 2:03.55 to finish third.