WATERVILLE, Maine - The Tufts 200 freestyle relay swam the best time in New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) history on Friday night to highlight the Jumbos' second day at the women's swimming & diving championship meet hosted by Colby College.
Leading off Friday night's finals, Tufts' foursome of Jillian Cudney, Katelin Ulmer, Abby Claus (pictured) and Mary Hufziger put together a 1:31.91 winning time. That erased the previous conference record (1:32.48 by Williams in 2018), the previous conference championship meet record (1:33.09 by Williams in 2018) and the previous Tufts mark (1:34.53 from 2020).
Additionally, Cudney's 23.11 in the lead-off leg broke her own school record in the 50 freestyle for the second time on Friday. She had originally broke her own mark of 23.65 from 2021 in Friday morning's 50 freestyle trials (23.20).
Six school records in all were established by the Jumbos today. With their strong performance, Tufts kept hold of first place at the meet through two days. The Jumbos have a 722 score ahead of Williams College's 703.5 in the 11-team competition.
Katelin Isakoff swam a 4:55.31 school-record in the 500 freestyle, where she was one of five Jumbos to finish in the top 11 and record NCAA B marks. Isakoff finished third, Claire Brennan was fifth (4:55.39), Katie Shelburne was eighth (5:00.17), Hufziger was ninth (4:55.97) and Sahar Mumtaz was 11th (5:00.50). Brennan had been the previous record holder at 4:55.51 from 2020.
Similarly, Tufts scored big in the 200 individual medley led by a school record. Claus' 2:04.34 for third place was 0.09 faster than the previous Jumbo mark of 2:04.43 by Grace Goetcheus from 2020. Tory Atkinson was sixth in tonight's final (2:06.75) and Chloe Deveney was ninth with a 2:05.92 NCAA B cut. Tufts had six swimmers in the top 16 overall for the 200 IM.
Claus, Abby Miller, Mary Laurita and Hufziger closed the meet with a school record 3:46.45 time for second place in the 400 medley relay. The previous record of 3:47.61 had been set in 2020. In the lead-off leg, Claus' 56.39 set a new Tufts mark for the 100 backstroke surpassing Goetcheus' 57.21 from 2020.
Cudney was the runner-up in the 50 freestyle with a 23.16 mark in the finals. Laurita was third in the 50 butterfly at 25.25 seconds, while Miller was fifth for the 50 breaststroke (29.84). Elise Fong led the Jumbos in the 50 backstroke in 12th-place with a touch of 27.06 seconds.
In one-meter diving, Tufts' Alaina Kosko placed third (416.20) and Sydney Ho took sixth (399.90).
Day three of the meet begins with preliminaries on Saturday at 10 am.
