CHICAGO – The Brandeis University swimming and diving team set a pair of relay and one individual record on the first day of action at the 2017 University Athletic Association championships held at the University of Chicago.
The Judges established two school records on the first event of the day, the women's 200-yard freestyle relay. As a group junior Amy Sheinhait (Framingham, Mass./Framingham), rookie Natalya Wozab (Plantation, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas), junior Abby Damsky (New York, N.Y./Brearly School) and rookie and rookie Yvette Smith (Gainesville, Fla./Gainesville) erased the record that had been set at the 2016 conference championships with a time of 1:40.33. The quartet beat the old record time by 0.22 seconds. They ended up in eighth place after the finals, swimming 1:40.50.
Swimming the lead leg, Sheinhait eclipsed one of the two oldest records in the Judges' books with a 50-yard split of 24.90 seconds. The previous record of 24.93 had been held since 1990 by Hall of Famer Wendy Lowengrub '90.
The men ended the meet the way the women started it, establishing a relay record, this time in the 400 medley relay. Rookie Tamir Zitelny (Syosset, N.Y./Syosset), junior Rich Avrutsky (Needham, Mass./Needham), senior Edan Zitelny (Sysosset, N.Y./Syosset) and senior Cameron Braz (Monson, Mass./Monson) lowered the mark previously set in 2010 by nearly three full seconds with a time of 3:28.86, good for a sixth-place finish.
Individually, the best performance of the first day of action was turned in by sophomore Kylie Herman (Weston, Fla./Cypress Bay) in the women's 500-yard freestyle. Herman turned in a personal-best time of 5:11.65 in the prelims to qualify for the C finals in 21st place. She then lowered her time to 5:09.37 in the evening session, good for 19th place.
Junior Genna Karp (Springfield, N.J. / Golda Och Academy) placed 20th in the 3-meter diving competition with a score of 180.35.
Other top performances on the day included Wozab in the 200 individual medley (2:13.21, 32ndplace) and Sheinhait in the 50 free (25.26 seconds, 35th place) for the women. For the men, rookie Noah Ayers (San Diego, Calif. / Torrey Pines) was 35th in the 500 free (4:53.67); Edan Zitelny was 35th in the 200 IM (1:57.89) and Braz was 38th in the 50 free (22.26 seconds).
Overall, the men scored 142 points and are in seventh place after Day One of the UAA championships, while the women are eighth with 55 points.
Action from the 2017 UAA Swimming and Diving Championships can be followed at http://athletics.uchicago.edu/sports/mswimdive/2016-17/uaa