The University of Akron Athletics
University of Akron
Zippy Invitational
Swimming and Diving Turns in Strong Second Day at Zippy Invitational
December 06 | Women's Swimming & Diving
Follow Akron Swimming and Diving on Twitter and Facebook
AKRON, Ohio – The University of Akron swimming and diving team issued multiple record-breaking performances on Saturday to help maintain its first-place standing throughout day two of the Zippy Invitational at the Ocasek Natatorium.
The Zips topped the scoreboard with a tally of 1310 on day two of the three-day meet. Marshall maintained second place out of the 10 women's teams at 1130. Illinois State (1122), Clarion (702) and IUP (639) round out the top five.
IUP leads all six men's teams with 1259 points.
For the second-straight night, the Zips kicked off the evening's events with a victory, this time taking the top two spots. The 200-yard medley relay team of Luka Szynal, Amanda Lawson, Erin Seiler and Hannah Raspopovich won the event and set a new Zippy Invitational record with a time of 1:41.65, also the second-fastest in program history. The previous meet record was 1:42.32, set in 2013 by an Akron relay team. Akron's B team finished second at 1:43.35.
Two members of the record-breaking 200-yard medley relay team also set individual records on Saturday.
Szynal eclipsed the Zippy Invitational record in the 100-yard backstroke prelims with a time of 54.55 Saturday morning. The sophomore then capitalized on her preliminary 100 back effort by finishing in 54.28 to set an Ocasek Natatorium record and again best the Zippy Invitational record in the final session. The previous pool record was 54.42 (2012) while the meet record was 55.24 set in 2010 by Ohio's Rachel Heim. She came within .07 seconds of teammate Laura Savariau's program record of 54.21. Both of Szynal's times met the NCAA Division I B standard of 55.09. Her first-place finish was followed by Savariau in fourth at 56.73, while Kelsey Ferrante finished sixth.
Seiler also set an individual Zippy Invitational record along with a new program record, as she posted a time of 54.21 in the 100-yard butterfly. The previous program record was 54.30 set by Katie Miles in 2011. Ashley Niznik took fourth while Meghan Pearson finished eighth, rounding out the Zips' top-10 100 fly performers.
A pair of freshmen finished strong for UA in the 400-yard IM as Kristen Vargas took second at 4:24.85 and Allison Teske touched seventh.
Raspopovich earned second in the 100-yard breaststroke after a 1:03.55 performance in which she was narrowly out-touched by Nikki Young of Bloomsburg, who reached in 1:03.47. Amanda Lawson, Mary Kallinicou and Laura Weiss also registered top-10 finishes for the Zips in the event.
All three of the Zips' divers qualified for the three-meter dive finals as Paige Kelkenberg (279.30), Rachel Aepelbacher (262.45) and Alice Hottensmith (253.65) earned third, fourth and fifth, respectively before the Zips closed day two finishing third and eighth in the 800 free relay.
The Zippy Invitational will conclude on Sunday, with preliminaries set to begin at 9 a.m. Finals will begin at 4 p.m. A full list of scheduled events can be found in the Zippy Invitational program.
A video stream is available through GoZips.com while live results can be accessed through the Meet Mobile smartphone app.
Tickets for each individual prelim session are $6, while tickets to the final sessions are $8 each. Tickets must be paid for in cash and will be available one hour prior to the start of each session.
