Four records fall at Summit League Championships

Thursday, February 21

Rochester, Mich.

11 a.m. ET

South Dakota State University

Summit League Championships

2/21/2008 1:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving

By: SDSU Sports Info

ROCHESTER, Mich. ? South Dakota State University swimmers combined to set four school records during the first day of competition Thursday at The Summit League Women's Swimming and Diving Championships.

The Jackrabbits stand in fourth place out of six teams with 120 points. Defending champion and host Oakland leads with 289 points, followed by Western Illinois with 155 and Centenary with 137. Rounding out the team standings are Eastern Illinois with 73 and IUPUI with 71 points.

Individually, Alexandra Hoffman broke an eight-year-old record in the 50-yard freestyle, setting a new standard during both the preliminary and final rounds. A sophomore from Eureka, Hoffman turned in a time of 24.68 seconds in the preliminaries, then clocked a time of 24.07 seconds in the finals to place third. Julie Hemleben previously held the record of 24.86 seconds, set in 2000.

Sophomore Sara Olenich followed with a 10^th-place time of 25.05 seconds in the 50 freestyle.

Junior Mallory Onisk added a third-place finish in the 200 individual medley, clocking a time of 2 minutes, 9.79 seconds. Sophomore Rachel Musser came in 15^th for the Jackrabbits, 2:15.48.

The other individual record to fall came in the 500 freestyle, where Christina Gerometta

took over the top spot during the preliminaries Thursday morning with a time of 5:11.73. In the event finals, Gerometta settled for an eighth-place time of 5:14.88. Gerometta's time in the prelims was nearly four seconds better than teammate Kayleigh Boucher's previous school-record mark of 5:15.52 set earlier this season. Boucher clocked a time of 5:14.11 to finish 11^th overall while swimming in the consolation final.

The individual performances were bookended by record-setting marks in the relays. The Jackrabbits opened the evening session by improving on their school-record time in the 200 freestyle relay as the quartet of Hoffman, Olenich, Julia Dicostanzo and Rachel Musser posted a fourth-place finish in 1:39.61.

SDSU concluded the evening by clipping more than three seconds off the previous school record in the 400 medley relay. The team of Hoffman, Emily Tschetter, Onisk and Musser turned in a third-place time of 3:57.67.

Competition resumes at 11 a.m. Eastern Time on Friday.

RESULTS