Cleveland, Ohio - The Youngstown State swimming and diving team opened the Horizon League Championships by setting school records in two relay events on Wednesday evening at the Busby Natatorium.
YSU opened the event with a time of 1:35.64 in the 200-yard freestyle, which was .02 ahead of the school mark set previously in 2012. To conclude the evening, the Penguins finished fifth in 200-yard medley relay posting a time of 1:43.80 which eclipsed the time of 1:44.53 that was also set in 2012.
Swimming in the 200-yard freestyle was Chelsea Malone, Jana Janson, Therese Stevens and Soyriah Davis. Competing in the 200-yard medley relay was Ashley Dow (backstroke), Hannah Reynolds (breaststroke), Laura Paz (butterfly) and Janson (freestyle).
Dow's split of 25.39 seconds in the backstroke gave the Penguins an early lead in the event and bodes well for the remainder of the meet. Dow won both the 100 and 200 yard backstroke events last year.
In the 1,000-yard freestyle, Megan Ciampa finished 14th with a time of 10:38.76 to earn three points for YSU. Kim Kurtz was 21st, Elli Stevens finished 23rd and Katrina Gerbrand was 24th.
The Penguins are tied for sixth in the team standings with Wright State at 55 points. Milwaukee has a narrow lead over Oakland (112-109) after the first three events.
Preliminaries will be held tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. with finals set to go off at 5:30 p.m.