WOMEN'S SWIMMING & DIVING

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More Records Fall at MAC Women's Championships

Thursday's finals

Thursday's preliminaries

Andrea Lehner

BUFFALO, NY – The 2008 Mid-American Conference Women's Swimming and Diving Championships continued at Buffalo's Alumni Arena Natatorium with more conference and UB records being broken on Thursday evening.

Toledo won three events to increase their lead in the team standings. Eastern Michigan won the other two championship events from Thursday night. Through seven events, the Rockets lead the meet with 258.5 points, followed by Ohio (225), Eastern Michigan (198), Miami (OH) (182), Buffalo (148), Bowling Green (123.5), Akron (111) and Ball State (82).

Thursday's finals opened with Eastern Michigan's Maddy Pilchard, the two-time MAC Swimmer of the Year, winning her third 500-yard freestyle championship in three years. Pilchard broke the MAC and MAC Championship record in taking the event in 4:46.83. UB's Andrea Lehner (Lockport, NY/Orchard Park) was second in 4:47.46, breaking her own school record for the event. Lehner lowered her school record to 4:53.10 in the preliminaries and cut six seconds off the time in the finals. She had previously posted a record of 4:56.28 last November for the UB mark.

Sam Palma

Toledo then won the next three events. Meg Reissig broke the MAC and MAC Championship records, previously held by UB's Jennefer Brankovsky, as well as the UB pool record with her victory in the 200-yard individual medley. Reissig won the race in 2:01.24, three-quarters of a second better than the previous MAC mark.

Leah Woodard of Toledo established a new pool record with her win in the 50-yard freestyle. Woodard won the race in 23.05, the same time she posted in Thursday's preliminary heats, breaking the UB pool standard of 23.41 set by U.S. Olympian Jenny Thompson in 1989.

Megan McKinley gave the Rockets their third win of the night with a victory on the one-meter diving board. McKinley, who posted the top mark of 277.65 in the preliminary round, bettered her total with a 306.20 total for six dives.

Meghan Lafferty

Eastern Michigan's 200-yard freestyle relay team finished the night by setting a MAC, MAC Championship and UB pool record with their win in 1:32.08. The foursome included Alissa Ricard, Cat Lee Ha, Hannah Burandt and Pilchard. UB's foursome finished fourth in 1:34.52, a new Bulls' record. The UB team consisted of Jessie Koltz (Chenango Bridge, NY/Chenango Valley), Sam Palma (Lancaster, NY/Lancaster), Catherine Scharf (New Hartford, NY/New Hartford) and Meghan Lafferty (East Aurora, NY/East Aurora).

Other individual finalists for the Bulls included Palma placing seventh in the 50-yard freestyle in 23.77. She set a lifetime-best in the preliminaries in 23.64. Meili Carpenter (Boulder, CO/Fairview) was fifth on the one-meter board with a total score of 266.15.

Competition continues Friday and conlcudes on Saturday.

Team scores (after seven events): Toledo 258.5, Ohio 225, Eastern Michigan 198, Miami (OH) 182, Buffalo 148, Bowling Green 123.5, Akron 111, Ball State 82.

Thursday's champions

500 freestyle: Maddy Pilchard (Eastern Michigan) 4:46.83

200 individual medley: Meg Reissig (Toledo) 2:01.24

50 freestyle: Leah Woodard (Toledo) 23.05

1-meter diving: Megan McKinley (Toledo) 306.20

200 freestyle relay: Eastern Michigan (Alissa Ricard, Cat Lee Ha, Hannah Burandt, Maddy Pilchard) 1:32.08