LANCASTER, Pa. – After another run-away effort on Day Two of the Centennial Conference championship, the Ursinus College women's swimming team is on the cusp of a four-peat.
The Bears won nine more medals in the evening session, including four golds, to increase their lead to almost 200 points. Ursinus will head into Sunday with 567 team points, well clear of Swarthmore (370) in second and Gettysburg (352) in third. Another conference record and a trio of NCAA B cut times helped make it happen.
Sophomore Peyten Lyons, junior Olivia Tierney, sophomore Clara Baker, and senior Alexandra Hemp won the 200 medley relay in 1:46.06, an NCAA B cut time and a new CC and championship record; the Bears' foursome surpassed the previous mark of 1:46.10 established at last year's meet by Lyons, Tierney, Baker, and Micaela Lyons.
Tierney followed with one of the most exciting races of the night, taking silver in the 400 IM and touching the wall just a hundredth of a second after Swarthmore's Emily Bley at 4:37.46. Sophomore Katherine Madden finished fourth in 4:41.47. Sophomore Caroline Powell won the B final in 4:43.06, and senior Catherine Wilson took 16th place.
Baker made it back-to-back golds in the 100 fly, falling a hundredth of a second short of her own championship record with a time of 55.55. Junior Meggie Leitz (56.73) and junior Katherine Porter (57.57) completed a sweep of the podium for Ursinus, with Baker and Leitz recording NCAA B cut marks. Hemp placed sixth in 59.55.
Lyons won her second consecutive gold medal in the 100 back, notching a B cut time of 56.96 to finish just over a second ahead of Leitz (58.09, also an NCAA B cut) in silver. Lyons has been a part of five gold medals over the championship meet's first two days.
After winning the 200 free prelims, junior Sydney Gundersen won silver in the nightcap, her 1:54.73 trailing only Dickinson's Olivia Lyman. Sophomore Kathryn Longenecker (1:56.76) and freshman Margrethe Leis (1:57.61) were fifth and sixth, respectively, and Emick finished in 11th.
Tierney (1:07.55) and sophomore Gabriella Timuscuk (1:08.64) were sixth and seventh in the 100 breast.
Leitz, Longenecker, freshman Haley Sturla, and Gundersen capped the night with a dominating effort in the 800 free relay, winning gold by nearly nine seconds with a 7:44.51. Gundersen won her third career gold in the event, which Ursinus has taken in each of the last five years.
Powell, Timuscuk, Emick, and Leis won the B final in 7:56.17, the fourth-best performance of the event.
The Bears look to cap off their fourth straight title on Sunday, with prelims starting at 10 a.m.
