Day One Results

    POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (January 18, 2014) – The Vassar College women's swimming and diving team currently sits in third place out of the five schools competing in the 32nd annual Seven Sisters Championships after day one at Kresge Pool on Saturday.

    An early fourth place finish by the 200 Yard Freestyle Relay team of Elizabeth Balter (Mount Kisco, NY/Fox Lane), Olivia Harries (Temple Terrace, FL/Lee Academy), Leah Pan (Oakland Gardens, NY/Hunter College) and Lily Frye (Fairport, NY/Harley School) (1:47.54) gave the Brewers momentum for the rest of the meet to keep ahead of fourth place Smith College and fifth place Bryn Mawr College.

    Vassar's biggest highlight of the day came from freshman Julia Cunningham (Yardley, PA/Peddie School) in both the 400 Yard Individual Medley and the 100 Yard Butterfly. Cunningham qualified for an NCAA B-cut with a time of 4:31.89 in the 400 IM. Her time was good enough for another school record and a second place finish behind Mount Holyoke's outstanding swimmer, Cathleen Pruden who swam a 4:29.55.

    Cunningham also snapped her own 100 Fly record with a new spot of 58.00. Her time was 0.27 off of another NCAA B-cut. Cunningham won the event for the Brewers and would prove to be the only victory for Vassar on the day, but not the only highlight.

    "Vassar had a great first day of Seven Sisters competition with many great, gutsy swims," head coach Lisl Prater-Lee said.

    The 200 Yard Medley Relay team of Milee Nelson (Champaign, IL/University Laboratory), McKenzie Quinn (Upper Montclair, NJ/Immaculate Heart), Maryam Pourmaleki (Branford, CT/Branford) and Frye finished in fourth (1:57.85). Quinn also took a solo fourth place completion in the 100 Yard Breaststroke (1:13.76) while also taking a third place finish in another relay.

    Cunningham, Quinn, Harries and Nelson took third in the final event of the day. They finished with a time of 8:15.22 right behind Mount Holyoke's team of Emily Craig, Maya Lazarovich, Erica Carvell and Pruden's 8:14.69 in the 800 Yard Free Relay.

    The 100 Yard Backstroke found much success for the Brewers, being led by Nelson in fifth (1:04.01). She was supplemented by Marie Schmidt (Homer, AK/Homer) in ninth (1:06.06), Harris in 10th (1:06.59) and Balter in 11th (1:06.71). The four totaled 36 points for the Brewers in that one race which was a second best behind Wellesley taking the one-two-three finish along with a six-seven-15 supplemental scoring.

    The sophomore diver duo of Maya Pruitt (New York, NY/Laguardia Music Art) and Alison Sagliocca (Stony Brook, NY/Ward Melville) competed against eight other divers on the 1-Meter board in an 11-dive format. Despite what the score depicts, all the divers each had high scores for multiple dives on Saturday.

    Pruitt stood out for Vassar with a fifth place, 314.85 placing while Sagliocca took seventh with a 291.15 score. Smith took the event with the third, fourth and sixth place spots as well as the No. 1 spot with Cecelia Arrison's 403.95. Arrison was the only diver to be awarded an eight with her dive in the 10th round. She performed a back dive from pike position.

    Pruitt's top dive was her back dive from pike as well when she earned at least one score of 7.5.

    "Maya [Pruitt] and Alison [Sagliocca] had a great day on the board," said Prater-Lee. "We're having a great time and competing very well."

    The Brewers and the rest of the schools will finish the Seven Sisters Swimming and Diving Championships on Sunday at 9:30 am with the start of the 3-Meter competition.