ODAC Championships, Day One

GREENSBORO, North Carolina, February 10. WASHINGTON and Lee University won three of the five events competed on the first day of the 2012 ODAC Swimming Championships, opening up an 84-point lead (293-209) over Randolph-Macon College in the team standings. Bridgewater College (96), Greensboro College (90) and Sweet Briar College (81) are tight in rounding out the top five.

Two ODAC and meet records fell on Friday at the Greensboro Aquatic Center, both with unique stories. In the 200-yard individual medley, Greensboro's Emma Phillips celebrated the Pride's first championship performance under the ODAC banner by eclipsing the previous best times in the event. She touched the wall in 2:09.62, bettering the meet record of 2:11.02 (April Whitely, Agnes Scott in 2008) and the overall conference mark of 2:10.71 (Susan Mahoney, W&L in 2009).

In the final event of the day, Washington and Lee won the 400-yard medley relay with a time of 3:59.44, surpassing the meet and ODAC record of 4:00.28 by the Generals in 2009. W&L senior Dana Fredericks was a member of that original unit as a freshman, and she again played a role in recapturing the league standard along with teammates Jocelyn Cassada, Caroline Hamp and Meredith Hardy.

Friday's finals opened with Washington and Lee securing its first win of the evening in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:38.26. Cassada, Izzy Brassfield, Fredericks and Hardy out-paced the contingent from Randolph-Macon by just 0.45 seconds (1:38.71) for the victory.

Delaney Rolfe, the 2011 ODAC/Farm Bureau Insurance Swimming Scholar-Athlete of the Year, continued the Generals' success with a winning time of 5:12.94 in the 500-yard freestyle. The Yellow Jackets' Lizzy Buckley (5:15.22) and Rebecca Stevenson (5:16.94) placed second and third, respectively.

Reigning ODAC Swimming of the Year, Sarah Almond, opened Randolph-Macon's account as she secured the 50-yard freestyle title for the second straight year with a time of 24.32. But it was Washington and Lee that picked up a lot of points by securing the next four spots with Brassfield (24.70), Cassada (24.76), Hardy (24.76), and Fredericks (24.93) stopping the watches behind Almond.

Seven events are on the itinerary for Saturday, beginning with the 200-yard medley relay in the preliminaries at 10:00 a.m. The 400-yard individual medley, 100-yard butterfly, 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard breaststroke, 100-yard backstroke, and 800-yard freestyle relay (finals only) comprise the day's schedule. Saturday's finals begin at 6:30 p.m.

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