Behind a school-record performance from Maya Gomez, Middlebury remained in seventh place following the second day of the 2018 NESCAC Women's Swimming & Diving Championship held at Williams' Samuelson-Muir Pool. The Ephs increased their lead in the team standings with a two-day total of 1,376 points, while Amherst sits in second place with 1,150 points and Connecticut College (844.5) remains in third. Middlebury has racked up 554 points through the first two days of competition.
In the morning swim, Gomez highlighted Saturday's action for the Panthers with a school-record and NCAA 'B' cut mark of 1:02.92 in the 100 breaststroke. That time broke the previous record of 1:03.07 set by Jamie Hillas in 2013. During the evening's championship race, Gomez earned All-NESCAC honors with a runner-up finish in 1:03.89.
In the night's initial championship final, the 200 medley relay quartet of Sarah Bartholomae, Gomez, Frances VanderMeer and Stephanie Andrews touched the wall in fifth place with an NCAA 'B' cut time of 1:44.87.
Other top finishes came from VanderMeer, who won the consolation final to finish ninth overall in the 100 butterfly with a time of 57.03. Angela Riggins was 11th in the 1,000 freestyle (10:36.30), while Kristin Karpowicz touched the wall with the second-quickest time in the consolation final during 200 free (1:53.84). Sarah McEachern stopped the clock 13th in the 400 individual medley (4:36.43).
During the evening's final event, the 800 free relay team of Karpowicz, Riggins, Georgia Houde and Erin Kelly posted an eighth-place effort of 7:46.71.
The Panthers will conclude the championship Sunday morning with preliminaries scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m., while the finals session will start at 5:30 p.m. with the 1,650 freestyle.
