Four women's BUSDT records fall on Day 2 of Gompei Invitational

Claire Xu '22 (Photo by Sportspix.com / Jan Volk)
Claire Xu '22 (Photo by Sportspix.com / Jan Volk)

WORCESTER, Mass. – Three Brandeis University swimming and diving individual records and three relay school records fell today on the second day of action at the 2018 Gompei Invitational at WPI. The Judges scored 1460.5 points and remained in eighth place – fifth among Division III schools – at the event which features combined men's and women's scoring. The meet concludes tomorrow.

SCHOOL RECORDS – RELAYS

  • Both the men and women set school records in the 200-yard freestyle relay races that opened each session of the day.
  • For the women, the team of rookie Lauren Howard (Abington, Mass. / Cardinal Spellman), sophomore Uajda Musaku (Winthrop, Mass. / Winthrop), sophomore Annie Huang (Chapel Hill, N.C. / East Chapel Hill) and senior Kylie Herman (Weston, Fla./Cypress Bay) erased a record set in 2017 with their time of 1:39.98, which was good for ninth place.
  • The men turned in a sixth place performance with a time of 1:25.10 to erase a record that had stood since 2005, among the oldest swimming records in the Judges' books. The team was made up of sophomores Daniel Wohl (Chapel Hill, N.C. / East Chapel Hill), Chase Chen (Villanova, Penn. / The Hill School), Marcelo Ohno-Machado (San Diego, Calif. / Torrey Pines) and junior Tamir Zitelny (Syosset, N.Y./Syosset).
  • The women also closed the day with a school mark in the 400 medley relay, coming in ninth with a time of 4:02.06, 0.19 seconds faster than the mark established in 2009. The squad consisted of by rookie Claire Xu (E. Hanover, N.J./Newark Academy), rookie Olivia Stebbins (Willington, Conn./E.O. Smith), sophomore Audrey Kim (Livingston, N.J. / Livingston) and senior Kylie Herman (Weston, Fla./Cypress Bay).

SCHOOL RECORDS – INDIVIDUAL

  • Both women's school records were broken by rookie Claire Xu (E. Hanover, N.J./Newark Academy) in the backstroke events.
  • In the 100, she smashed a record that had stood since 2008 by 1.35 seconds with a time of 58.35 seconds, good for seventh place.
  • In the 50, she placed third overall with a time of 27.18 seconds, taking 0.58 seconds off the previous mark set just last season.
  • The men's 100 back record also fell today, as junior Tamir Zitelny (Syosset, N.Y./Syosset) became the first Judge to swim the race in better than 50 seconds with a time of 49.97. He eclipsed his own mark set last year at UAAs to finish in second place.

MORE HIGHLIGHTS – MEN

  • The Brandeis men had four swimmers place among the top three, across three different events.
  • The team's second event winner of the meet was sophomore Daniel Wohl (Chapel Hill, N.C. / East Chapel Hill), who captured the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:42.43 in the finals. His time of 1:41.98 in the prelims was a little more than half a second off his school record time set at UAAs last year.
  • In the 400-yard individual medley, the Judges came in second and third. Sophomore Richard Selznick (Las Vegas, Nev./Dos Pueblos) was the runner up with a time of 4:09.66, while rookie Brendon Lu (Basking Ridge, N.J. / Ridge) turned in the sixth-fastest time in school history with a mark of 4:12.95, good for third place.
  • The men also had two top-10 finishes in the 50 back. Sophomore Benton Ferebee (Germantown, Tenn. / Memphis University School) was seventh with a time of 25.19 seconds, fifth fastest in program history, while rookie Sean Riordan (Westford, Mass. / Westford Academy) tied for eighth with a mark of 25.22 seconds, sixth on the school lists.
  • Other top-20 performers were Riordan in the 100 back (17th, 54.38 seconds), sophomore Benjamin Francis (Brooklyn, N.Y. / Brooklyn Friends School) in the 100 back (19th, 54.69 seconds, 54.29 in the prelims), rookie Alex Wang (Surrey, BC / Southpointe Academy) in the 100 breaststroke (12th, 58.79 seconds) and junior Matthew Arcemont (Santa Ana, Calif. / Mater Dei) in the 50 butterfly (17th, 24.34 seconds).

MORE HIGHLIGHTS – WOMEN

  • The Judges had one other top-10 finish, as rookie Olivia Stebbins (Willington, Conn./E.O. Smith) continued her fine performance in the breaststroke, coming in eighth with a time of 1:08.21, the fourth-fastest in program history.
  • Sophomore Audrey Kim (Livingston, N.J. / Livingston) was 19th in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:00.76.