Spiders Sit Atop the Standings on Day Two of the Atlantic 10 Championship

Thursday, April 15

Geneva, Ohio

University of Richmond

Atlantic 10 Championships

Photo by: Atlantic 10 Conference

Spiders Sit Atop the Standings on Day Two of the Atlantic 10 Championship

04/15/2021 | Women's Swimming & Diving

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RICHMOND, Va. – Richmond swimming and diving put together a solid performance at both locations to jump into the top spot on day two of the Atlantic 10 Championship. The Spiders had several personal best times and history made as four Spiders put their names into the All-Time Top 10 at the University of Richmond with their performances. Richmond is currently in first place with a score of 247.5, followed by Davidson at 237, and Duquesne at 173.5.

All three Spider divers qualified for either the finals or the consolation finals for their efforts during the morning dives. Six of seven swimmers in the 500 freestyle qualified for either the finals, or the consolation finals. Three of four individual medley performers earned a spot in the afternoon's competition, and the one swimmer in the 50 freestyle earned a spot in the finals as well.

Six Spiders qualified to swim in the 500 freestyle finals on Thursday evening. Grace Palfreyman (Bridgewater, N.J.) and Petra Mijic (Split, Croatia) swam in the consolation finals first. Mijic finished 14^th overall at 4:57.09, and Palfreyman was 15^th at 4:57.31. Four spiders swam in the finals. Freshman Alexa Connors (Kingston, Mass.) earned a time of 4:50.92 to finish second and now ranks fourth all-time for the Spiders. Fellow freshman Megan Carson (Apex, N.C.) took fifth at 4:54.23. Claire O'Shaughnessy (Laurel, Md.) was right behind Carson, taking sixth with a time of 4:56.19. Katelyn Pennell (Eden Prairie, Minn.) took eighth, finishing at 4:56.68 to earn 11 points.

Maggie Purcell (Southampton, N.Y.), Ellie Ronan (Marblehead, Mass.) and Mattie Williams (Lake George, N.Y.) qualified to swim in the 200 IM finals. Williams swam first in the consolation finals, taking 12^th overall to earn five points with a time of 2:05.10. Ronan earned a fourth-place time in the finals at 2:01.85, and now ranks sixth all-time in Spiders history. Purcell tied with Emma Brinton from Duquesne as both touched the wall at the exact same moment, finishing at 2:00.17. Purcell moves her name up to third all-time in program history with the finish.

Lauren Medlin (Cary, N.C.) was the lone Spider to swim in the 50 freestyle. Medlin took third, finishing in 23.30. That's her fastest time as a Spider and moves her into seventh all-time at UR in the event.

The divers all qualified to dive in the finals. Freshman Zazi Hall (McLean, Va.) competed in the consolation final, as senior Alex Beran (Basking Ridge, N.J. and Emma Yeakley (Cornelius, N.C.) qualified for the finals competition. Halla took ninth place, scoring 266.00 for the top spot in the consolation final. Yeakley took seventh, scoring 250.05. Beran took fifth in the event with a score of 259.45.

The Spiders are back in action tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m. for the preliminary races of the 400 IM, the 100 butterfly, the 200 freestyle, the 100 breaststroke and the 100 backstroke. The divers will also be in action in the morning as they will be competing in the 1-meter event at George Mason.

-- UR --