Aided by two school-record performances and a victory by Maya Gomez during the opening day of the 2017 NESCAC Women's Swimming & Diving Championship on Friday, Middlebury sits in fifth place among 11 teams competing at the event hosted Bowdoin in the Greason Pool. Williams leads the way with 625.5 points, while Amherst (547.5), Connecticut College (461.5), Bates (460) and the Panthers (448) round out the top five.

In the evening's first event, the 200-free relay team of Gomez, Morgan Burke, Isabel Wyer and Frances VanderMeer swam to a fourth-place time of 1:34.77, good for an NCAA 'B' cut. During the morning preliminary swim, the quartet set the school record with a mark of 1:34.73.

A few events later, Gomez led the field to the wall in the 50 breaststroke with a victorious and pool-record time of 28.93. Celia Ripple was fourth in the event, recording a mark of 29.66.

The second school record tallied on the opening night happened during the final event. The 400-medley relay consisting of Wyer, Ripple, VanderMeer and Burke stopped the clock with a runner-up time of 3:47.85, lowering the previous time by 1.28 seconds. The mark was also an NCAA 'B' cut time.

Sandwiched between Gomez and the final relay, VanderMeer swam to a third-place tie in the 50 back (26.68), while winding up in a fourth-place tie in the 50 fly (25.60). Wyer was fourth in the 500 free with an NCAA 'B' cut mark of 4:57.79

Another notable performance in the pool came from Burke in the 50 free with an eighth-place time of 24.16.

On the diving board, Elissa DeNunzio amassed 380.15 points during the 1-meter final and finished in eighth place.

The Panthers return for day two of the championship on Saturday. Morning preliminaries are scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m., while the finals session will start at 5:50 p.m.