LEXINGTON, Va. – In the first meet of the program's varsity era, the Emory & Henry College Women's Swimming Team finished fourth out of nine schools at the 2012 Old Dominion Athletic Conference Relays, hosted by Washington and Lee University on Saturday afternoon. The Wasps picked up five second-place finishes over the 10 events.
The meet served as a preview of the season's competition, but only three of the races were NCAA sanctioned events, the 200-yard freestyle relay, 400-yard freestyle relay and 200-yard medley relay. The format of the competition allowed for each team to score multiple relays in each event, but with only one recruiting class, the Wasps were only able to field one team per race. Scoring only the "A" relays, as is the procedure for the ODAC Championships, E&H finished in a tie for second place.
In the first event of the day, the 150-yard butterfly relay, Payton Shirey (Seaford, Del.), Nicole Powell (Apex, N.C.) and Taylor Guardalabene (Charlotte, N.C.) finished second with a time of 1:24.71, just .03 off the winning time by W&L. The third-place team was over a second and a half behind.
Emory & Henry picked up second-place finish number two in the 150-yard breaststroke relay, as Guardalabene, Herron and Sophia Alonge (Vienna, Va.) clocked a time of 1:42.39, to finish 3.31 seconds above the third place.
The 400-yard freestyle was the first NCAA event of the day. The team of Shirey, Lauren Frizzell (Blacksburg, Va.), Guardalabene and Tyler Ann Herron (Calhoun, Ga.) established a school record with a swim of 3:49.44 to finish second. Shirey's leadoff of 57.18 is now the 100-yard freestyle top mark.
In the 200-yard medley relay, E&H got their fourth second place finish, besting third by 3.1 seconds with a record 1:57.11 swim by Frizzell, Herron, Guardalabene and Shirey.
The final sanctioned event in the meet was the 200-yard freestyle relay in which the Wasps were less than a second off of first and a full three seconds over third with a 1:44.89. Shirey, Herron, Sam Brown (Memphis, Tenn.) and Guardalabene earned the school record with Shirey posting a leadoff of 25.24 for the 50-yard freestyle record.
Emory & Henry will have its first home meet on Friday evening at 5:00 p.m. The Wasps will host the Panthers of Ferrum College at the Emory & Henry Aquatics Center.
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