EWING, N.J. – The York College women's swim team participated in the first day of the 2015 Lion Invitational hosted by the College of New Jersey in Ewing, New Jersey.
The Spartans finished day one fourth of five teams at the event. York has accumulated 142 points. College of New Jersey is first with 307 points while Bridgeport is second at 274. Rowan is third at 177 followed by York and US Merchant Marine Academy with 87 points.
York opened Friday's final with a sixth place finish in the 200 free relay. The foursome of Maddy Mann (Baltimore, Md./Eastern Technical), Taylor Michielini (Montvale, N.J./Pascack Hills), Taylor Witte (University Park, Md./St. John's), and Andrea Sturgis (Severn, Md./Archbishop Spalding) combined to finish with a time of 1:44.48.
Mann got right back in the pool and earned York's highest finish of the night as the freshman standout placed second in the 500 free. Mann, who swam a top time of 5:08.12 in the preliminaries, posted a time of 5:05.22 in the finals. She finished 2.16 seconds back of event winner Annagrazia Bosanti from Bridgeport. Mann finished almost nine seconds in front of the third place finisher. Sturgis also had a strong showing as she placed sixth in the finals with a time of 5:24.08 after a time of 5:21.97 in the prelims. Sophomore Brianna Blackwell (Chandler, Ariz./Hamilton) was the third Spartan to advance to the finals as she recorded an eighth place finish. Blackwell had a time of 5:35.14, a three second improvement over her preliminary time.
York had one swimmer compete in the 200 IM as sophomore Kacey Banks (Silver Spring, Md./Spencerville Adventist Academy) placed 15th in the event. Banks notched a time of 2:21.02 as she moved up one spot after the preliminaries.
The Green and White had a pair of swimmers advance to the consolation finals in the 50 freestyle. Michielini placed 15th with a time of 26.46 while Sturgis placed 16th with a time of 26.65.
The Spartans closed out the evening with an eighth place finish in the 400 medley relay race. The team of Julia Bogdanski (South Setauket, N.Y./Ward Melville), Samantha Hay (Bangor, Pa./Bangor), Mann, and Sturgis combined to record a time of 4:18.70.
The Spartans return to action Saturday morning at 11:00 am for the day's preliminaries. The finals will begin at 6:00 pm.
