Zippy Invitational: Akron Claims 2021 Zippy Invitational Title

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Zippy Invitational

Zippy Invitational: Akron Claims 2021 Zippy Invitational Title

December 05 | Women's Swimming & Diving

Zippy Invitational: Akron Claims 2021 Zippy Invitational Title
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Final Meet Results PDF | Day 3 Results PDF | Day 2 Results PDF | Day 1 Results PDF

AKRON, Ohio – The Akron swimming and diving team recorded seven NCAA D1 B qualifying times, three wins and two runner-up finishes on the final day of the 2021 Zippy Invitational to claim women's title at Oliver J. Ocasek Natatorium on Sunday.

Akron secured the women's championship with 2,005 points, while Pennsylvania earned runner-up (1,452 points) and Buffalo placed third overall (1,355 points).

Senior Sarah Watson (Winnipeg, Manitoba) secured the Zips first win, touching first in the 100-yard freestyle with a 48.76 NCAA D1 B time. Senior Sofia Henell (Linkoping, Sweden) placed third in the 100 Free with a 49.50 NCAA qualifying mark.

Seniors Andrea Fischer (Oak Grove, Minn.) and Paulina Nogaj (Radom, Poland) won back-to-back women's events as Fischer came from behind to secure the 200-yard breaststroke. Her 2:12.36 NCAA D1 B time edged out Oakland's Taylor Bailey (2:12.54) and senior Paula Garcia (Madrid, Spain) claimed third with a 2:13.31 performance (NCAA D1 B). Nogaj won the 200-yard butterfly by two seconds, posting a 1:58.05 NCAA qualifying effort while leading the race from start to finish – freshman Abigail Daniel (Bristow, Va.) touched third (2:00.42).

Junior Weronika Gorecka (Wroclaw, Poland) and sophomore Madelyn Gatrall (Windsor, Ontario, Canada) finished second and third in the 200-yard backstroke with NCAA times of 1:55.24 and 1:55.78, respectively.

The Women's 400-yard medley relay team scored the final points of the meet as Gatrall (50.35), Nogaj (49.65), Watson (48.62) and Henell (48.79) cruised to a 3:17.41 time, which would have set a meet record, but Buffalo claimed the top spot with the record (3:16.95).

On the men's side, records fell in 5-of-6 races as Matthew Fallon from Pennsylvania flew to the eighth fastest NCAA time ever recorded in the 200-yard breaststroke, finishing with a 1:50.53 time in prelims. He cut exactly 5-seconds from his seed time and replace the meet and pool records by nearly 4-seconds (1:54.31). Later in the finals, he was even faster, clocking a 1:49.71 NCAA D1 A cut time and becoming the second fastest freshman swimmer and posting the fastest NCAA time of the season.

Also setting meet and pool records were Penn's Billy Fallon (1650 Free) with a 15:22.72 b-cut time and Mark McCray (200 Back) with a 1:43.26. Cornell's Joseph Gurski posted a 1:46.99 time in the 200 Fly which replaced James Huang's 1:47.10 from Cornell. The 400-yard relay team from Oakland ended the meet in record-breaking fashion, eclipsing their own mark set in 2019 (2:57.68) with a 2:56.58 time.

Akron is scheduled to be back in action on Friday, Jan. 14 at 4 p.m. as the Zips host Ohio for a dual meet and senior day at Ocasek Natatorium.