MIDDLEBURY, VT - Junior Amanda Gottschalk and freshman Caroline McCormick both broke school records to highlight the Tufts Women's Swimming & Diving team's second day at the 2016 NESCAC Championships hosted by Middlebury College on Saturday.
Gottschalk's 4:29.79 time in the 400 individual medley broke Mika Sumiyoshi's 13-year old Tufts record of 4:30.58 set in 2003. Gottschalk's time is an NCAA B mark and gave her fourth place in NESCAC. She had timed an NCAA B mark of 4:33.85 in the preliminaries earlier on Saturday. This marks the third straight year she has posted an NCAA B cut.
McCormick broke a school record for the second straight day. After establishing a new 50 backstroke record of 26.86 on Friday, she swam 58.13 in the 100 back preliminaries today to add another Tufts standard to her resume. The previous mark of 59.36 was set by Samantha Sliwinski in 2012. McCormick placed seventh in Saturday's NESCAC 100 backstroke final with a 58.82 time.
Tufts remained in seventh place after two days at the conference championship. They have compiled a 522 team score. Williams College is well out in front with 1,466 points followed by second-place Amherst with 976 and third-place Bates at a 944.5 score.
The Jumbos started the day with a sixth-place finish in the 200 medley relay as McCormick, junior Sarah Elghor, sophomore Jess Lee and junior Sophia Lin combined for a 1:46.74 time in the final. McCormick's 27.07 50 backstroke led off the relay.
Tufts closed the day with an eighth-place in the 800 freestyle relay (7:49.83). Senior tri-captain Sarah Mahoney, freshman Colleen Doolan, freshman Alexandra Good and freshman Maddie Maider were the foursome. Doolan's 1:56.03 was the fastest 200 leg of the group.
The team also received solid points in the 100 breaststroke where sophomore Anna Kimura was 10th overall (1:06.41) and Elghor was 13th (1:07.26).
The third and final day of the NESCAC meet splashes off on Sunday with the preliminaries at 10 am and the finals at 5:30 pm. Tufts will be looking to move up a spot in order to improve upon the seventh-place finishes they have posted at the last two conference championships.
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