After the second day of swimming from the Miami Invitational the Denison women sit in third place with 852.5 points and trail only Emory (911) and Miami (1334.5) heading into the final day of competition.
Denison first-year Michelle Howell made the biggest splash on Friday night in Oxford by posting a pair of NCAA automatic qualifying times in the 200 butterfly and the 400 individual medley. Howell won the 400 IM with a time of 4:22.58 and placed third in the 200 fly in 2:03.18. In Friday's prelims, Howell logged her 'A' cut in 2:02.63.
Following Howell with NCAA provisional cuts in the 200 fly was Laurel Brabson who took fifth in 2:03.98, Emily Schroeder who placed eighth and Sarah DiNardo who finished 13th. Trailing Howell in the 400 IM was senior Emily Schroeder who logged an 'A' cut in 4:24.50 while placing fourth. First-year Lucy Roth placed 16th in 4:34.66 for a 'B' cut.
Junior Alyssa Swanson swam on the second-place 200 free relay, the fifth place 400 medley relay and was the runner-up in the 200 free. Her 200 free time of 1:49.17 was an 'A' cut and so was the 400 medley relay time of 3:46.45 that was posted along with Lindsay Zeberlein, Natalie Lugg and Brenna Broadus.
In the 200 free relay, Swanson teamed with Morgan Nuess, Molly Willingham and Broadus for a time of 1:33.99. Other 'B' cuts in the 200 freestyle came from Hilary Callen (8th, 1:51.94), Tully Bradford (12th, 1:52.55) and Marit Wangstad (15th, 1:52.96).
DU would rack up five 'B' cut times in the 100 backstroke, led by Sarah Yu, Cari Martin and Victoria Masney who placed seventh through ninth, respectively. Masney's prelim time of 56.83 was the best of the day for the Big Red.
In the 100 breaststroke Lugg was the runner-up in 1:03.82 for a strong 'B' cut. Broadus took 13th in 1:05.92. The night was rounded out in the 50 freestyle by Nuess and Swanson who placed fifth and sixth, respectively. Broadus also achieved a 'B' cut with her 15th place finish.
Overall DU achieved 23 NCAA cut times on Friday.
The Big Red will close out the Miami Invitational on Saturday with preliminaries beginning at 9 a.m. followed by finals at 6 p.m. Diving will also begin tomorrow in Fredonia, N.Y.
