CHICAGO, Ill. – The Brandeis University swimming and diving teams concluded their 2019-20 seasons at the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships today. One individual and two team school records fell in the process.
Both squads finished in eighth place, with the men scoring 423 points and the women tallying 308. The meet was hosted by the University of Chicago.
The top finish of the final day of action came from rookie Bailey Gold (Berkeley Heights, N.J. / Governor Livingston) in the 200-yard butterfly. Gold swam 2:08.51 in the preliminaries, giving her the 12th seed into the 'B' Finals. Though Gold was not able to lower her school record and swim in the 2:07s for the second time this season, she did improve on her seeding, finishing in 11th place with a time of 2:09.48. Gold's 11th-place finish was the second-best by any Brandeis swimmer at the meet and the top by a female Judge.
Classmate Ema Rennie (Dublin, Ohio / Dublin Scioto) broke the Judges' oldest school record in the books during the preliminaries in the 100-yard freestyle. She surpassed Hall of Famer Wendy Lowengrub '90 to become just the second woman in school history to break 54 seconds in the 100, posting a time of 53.51 seconds. In the 'C' finals, Rennie swam 53.57 to finish in 23rd place.
Gold and Rennie teamed with juniors Uajda Musaku (Winthrop, Mass./Winthrop) and Audrey Kim (Livingston, N.J. / Livingston) to place eighth in the 400-yard freestyle relay, setting another school record with a time of 3:37.73.
The Judges also got a scoring performance from sophomore Abbie Etzweiler (Malvern, Pa. / Great Valley) in the 1,650 free with a time of 18:54.63, about 10 seconds off her lifetime best set last year. The swim was good for 22nd place.
On the men's side, the highest individual finish of the day once again game from junior Daniel Wohl (Chapel Hill, N.C./East Chapel Hill). In the 100-yard freestyle, he reached the 'B' final with a prelim time of 46.12 seconds, good for the 12th seed. He ended up in 13th place with a finals time of 46.30 seconds.
The Judges had two other finishers place 18th in their respective events. Junior Richard Selznick (Las Vegas, Nev./Rancho Verdes) swam 16:42.53 in the 1,650 free, just a hair of his season best time. Sophomore Brendon Lu (Basking Ridge, N.J./Ridge) was the runner-up in the 'C' Final of the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:08.51, a couple of seconds off the pace in the finals race.
In the final relay of the day, senior Tamir Zitelny (Syosset, N.Y./Syosset), Wohl, junior Marcelo Ohno-Machado (San Diego, Calif. / Torrey Pines) and senior Matthew Arcemont (Santa Ana, Calif./Mater Dei) finished in eighth place with a time of 3:06.68, wiping more than two seconds off the previous school record set two years ago.