SYRACUSE, NY - The Hartwick College women's swimming and diving team dropped one spot to sixth in the state at the UNYSCSA Championships at Nottingham High School in Syracuse, NY. The Hawks have earned 452 points through two days of the competition at the 16-team event. The Empire 8 Conference Championship is being held in conjunction with the state meet. The Hawks maintain their fourth-place spot in the conference behind Ithaca, Stevens and Nazareth.
Freshman Stephanie Ha (Everett, WA) finished 6th in the Empire 8 and 8th overall in the 100 butterfly. She earned the second-fastest time in Hartwick history in the event in the preliminary round with a time of 58.63. Her time in the finals was just .09 slower. Both of her times on the day were NCAA B-cut qualifying times.
Senior Katie Swanson (Franklin, MA) was just .09 shy of being one of the eight finalists in the 400 individual medley. She won the B-final for 9th place as she cruised to a time of in 4:42.38, over eight seconds faster than the 10th place finisher. The time was also a personal best, ranked third all-time at Hartwick, and gave the senior Second Team All-Empire 8 honors.
Hartwick's 200 medley relay 'A' team finished 7th overall and 4th in the conference. Robyn Smith (Jupiter, FL), Kate Ahrendtsen (New Hartford, NY), Ha, and Kristie Grunert (Oakland, CA) earned a finals time of 1:52.10.
Smith also placed 11th individually in the 100 backstroke. Abby Wright (Holliston, MA) was two spots behind her in 13th. The duo finished 6th and 7th, respectively, in the E8. Ahrendtsen was also 6th in the conference and 12th overall in the 100 breaststroke.
The final day of competition wraps up tomorrow with preliminaries starting at 10:30 a.m. and the finals beginning at 6:30 p.m.
