The Case Western Reserve University women's swimming and diving team placed fifth at the 2024 University Athletic Association Championships that concluded on Saturday at the Myers-McLoraine Pool inside the Ratner Athletic Center in Chicago.
CWRU earned its best conference finish since the team placed fifth at the 2005 championships, earning 943.5 points across four days of competition. Emory won its 25th consecutive conference championship, scoring 1,744.0 points. Host Chicago placed second with 1,574.0 points, NYU finished third with 1,482.0 points, and WashU placed fourth with 1,162.0 points. Carnegie Mellon (850.0 points), Rochester (468.5), and Brandeis (384.0) rounded out the conference standings.
The Spartans ended the day with a B Cut in the 400 Free Relay as sophomore Claire Kozma, and juniors Angeli Paull, Kate Menzer, and Gabriella Chambers placed fourth in 3:28.24.
Individually, Kozma, Chambers, and Paull reached finals for the 100 Free. Kozma just missed All-UAA honors, placing fourth in the A Final with a time of 51.48 seconds. Chambers placed seventh in the A Final with a time of 51.66 seconds, and Paull placed 19th with a time of 52.70 seconds in the C Final. Junior Kelly Vann touched the wall just before Paull, finishing the race in 52.56 seconds to place 18th.
First-year Ava Ellis earned the team's other podium finish on the last day of the championship, placing eighth in the 1650 Free in 17:47.68. Classmate Erin Butler finished 11th in the event in 17:49.29, junior Selah Dean finished just behind in 17:53.58 to place 12th, and senior Emma Guarnieri placed 20th in 18:18.97.
Ellis and Guarnieri also raced in the 200 Breast with Ellis placing 24th in 2:33.21 and Guarnieri finishing 20th in 2:25.78. Junior Erica Rice also qualified for the C Final of the event, touching the wall at 2:28.60 to place 22nd.
Dean contributed a 24th-place finish in the 200 Fly in 2:16.48 after reaching the C Final with a prelims time of 2:13.96. Sophomore Allison Ploutz-Snyder finished 18th in the event in 2:11.53, and junior Erin Quinlan placed 22nd in 2:12.67.
A quartet of Spartans earned points in the 200 Back, led by a 12th-place finish from junior Elishka Bailey in 2:05.08. Bailey was joined in the B Final by junior Amelia Myhrvold, who placed 15th with a time of 2:05.98. In the C Final, sophomore Julia Cho finished 19th with a time of 2:04.61, and fifth-year Maria Pritchett placed 20th in 2:06.82.
Spartan swimmers will have one final chance to improve their times for qualification to the NCAA Championships, racing at the Midwest Invitational on February 23 and 24 at the University of Chicago. CWRU divers will next compete in the NCAA Diving Zone Regional, hosted by Denison University in Granville, Ohio, on March 1 and 2. The 2024 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships will be held from March 20-23 in Greensboro, North Carolina.
