Welch Sets 200 Backstroke Record as Women’s Swimming & Diving Closes Out the Ivy League Championships

Saturday, February 22

Providence, RI

Prelims: 11:00 AM | Finals: 6:00 PM

Brown University

Ivy League Championships

Welch Sets 200 Backstroke Record as Women’s Swimming & Diving Closes Out the Ivy League Championships

2/22/2020 9:44:00 PM | Women's Swimming & Diving

Complete Results

Results

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Brown women's swimming & diving team finished fifth at the Ivy League Championships on Saturday at the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center. Senior Sarah Welch (Beverly, Mass.) highlighted the final day by breaking the 200 backstroke school record twice, doing so in both the prelims and finals.

Brown scored 843 points for its fifth-place finish while Princeton won the championships with 1,569 points. Harvard placed second (1,462) while Yale claimed third (1,139.5).

Sophomore Emma Whall (Dover, N.H.) kicked off the night in the 1650 freestyle with a 12th-place finish in 16:46.86 while freshman Audrey Orange (New York City, N.Y.) (16:53.67) and senior Julia Armitage (Cleveland Heights, Ohio) (17:13.22) came in 15th and 20th, respectively.

Welch next broke her own program record in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:56.95 for fourth place in the A-Final. Her swim of 1:57.50 in the prelims also surpassed the original mark of 1:57.62 she set last year. In the B-Final of the event, Brown went 7-8 on finishes by sophomore Victoria Gong (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) (2:01.53) and senior Amelia Gilchrist (Greensboro, N.C.) (2:01.54). Freshman Sage Matsushima (Huntington Beach, Calif.) won the C-Final in 2:00.64 with sophomore Miku Takabayashi (Glastonbury, Conn.) behind her in second (2:01.30).

Junior Taylor Seaman (Brighton, Mich.) earned Second Team All-Ivy honors for the second time at the championships with a second-place finish in the A-Final of the 100 freestyle. Her time of 48.85 was just 0.01 away from tying the school record she shares with Brown Hall of Famer Jennifer Boyd '90. Senior Marley Cross (Seattle, Wash.) added an eighth-place finish in the B-Final (50.91).

In diving, sophomore Liv Mitchell (Laguna Beach, Calif.) recorded a score of 254.60 for sixth place in the B-Final.

Sophomore Audrey Lukawski (San Francisco, Calif.) led the Bears in the 200 breaststroke, coming in at third of the B-Final in 2:15.97.

In the final individual event of the night, freshman Nell Chidley (Mystic, Conn.) placed fourth in the A-Final of the 200 butterfly in 1:59.04. Sophomore Caylene Rippon (Hershey, Pa.) competed in the C-Final and took eighth (2:04.96).

The 400 freestyle relay team of Seaman, junior Tory Center (Madison, Wis.), Orange and Cross closed the meet in fifth place with a time of 3:21.47.