CLEVELAND – The Case Western Reserve University men's swimming & diving team set five school records and hit four NCAA "B" cuts on day one of the 2014 University Athletic Association Invitational at Veale Natatorium.
CWRU is hosting a two-day invitational with the University of Chicago and the University of Rochester (N.Y.) due to inclement weather in Atlanta and travel issues throughout the week for schools in the UAA. Emory University (Ga.) hosted a two-day UAA Championship on Friday and Saturday with the four remaining conference schools. The championship was originally scheduled as a three-day meet before Mother Nature intervened. Results from the two meets will be combined to determine team standings and All-UAA awards.
During the morning session, the 400-yard medley relay team got the ball rolling as the quartet of junior Andrew Bollinger (Boulder, Colo./Fairview), senior Sean Nickley (Springfield, Va./West Springfield), junior Eric Haufler (Westminster, Md./Francis Scott Key) and senior Scott McHenry (Yardley, Pa./Pennsbury) set a school record with an NCAA "B" cut time of 3:22.88. Bollinger, Nickley and Haufler each swam a leg when the record was previously set last winter.
Bollinger's split time of 51.47 in the 100 backstroke was also good for a school record which was held since 2011 by Robby Browning.
During individual prelim events, Nickley broke an eight-year old CWRU record in the 100 breaststroke with a "B" cut time of 56.35. Pat Rodjom set the previous standard (56.55) in 2006. Haufler then broke a two-year old school record with a time of 46.15 in the 100 free. Freshman Drew Weibel (Longmont, Colo./Niwot) hit a "B" cut in the 200 breaststroke (1:53.06) as did freshman Daniel Primachenko (Studio City, Calif./The Buckley School) in the 100 breaststroke (57.52).
During evening finals, the Spartan 800 free relay team jumped in the act with a school-record and "B" cut time of 6:47.16. McHenry swam leadoff, and Haufler swam anchor around freshman Andrew Henning (Ann Arbor, Mich./Huron) and sophomore Aaron Tam (Doral, Fla./Ronald Reagan Doral Senior).
The UAA Invitational concludes tomorrow with 10:00 a.m. prelims and 5:00 p.m. finals.
