From Feb. 13 to 15, the Brandeis swimming and diving teams competed at the University of Chicago in the University Athletic Association Championships. On day one, five Brandeis records were broken and on day three, two more records fell. Both teams finished in eighth place, with the women scoring 308 points and the men scoring 423 points. 

Bailey Gold ’23 was the top finisher in the 200-yard butterfly. In the preliminaries, Gold’s time was 2:08.51, which gave her the 12th seed into the ‘B’ finals. Gold improved on her seeding and an eleventh-place finish with a time of 2:09.49. Her 11th-place finish was the second-best by any Brandeis swimmer and a top finish by Brandeis women swimmers of all time. 

Ema Rennie ’23 broke her previous school record on the 50-yard free style on day one and broke the University’s oldest school record in the 100-yard freestyle during the preliminaries on day three. She beat Wendy Liwengrub’s ’09 record and became the second woman in the school’s history to break 54 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle. Rennie broke the record with a time of 53.51 seconds. With this time, she swam in the ‘C’ finals and finished in 23rd place. 

On day one, Audrey Kim ’21, Emily McGovern ’21, Bailey Gole ’23 and Rennie broke the school record in the 400-yard medley relay with a time of 4:00.46. On day three, Gold and Rennie were also teamed with Uajda Musaku ’21 and Audrey Kim ’21 in the 400-yard freestyle relay and placed eighth. They also broke a school record with their time of 3:37.73. Abbie Etzweiler ’22 had a great performance — a personal best — in the 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 18:54.63 which earned her  22nd place.  

On the men’s side on day one, Tamar Zitelny ’20, Brendon Lu ’22, Matthew Arecmont ’20 and Marcelo Ohno-Machado ’21 broke the University record in the 400-yard medley relay with a time of 3:26.37 and a seventh-place finish. Daniel Wohl ’21 had the highest individual freestyle in the 100-yard freestyle. He got into the ‘B’ preliminary with a time of 46.12 seconds. This time earned him the 12th seed, and in the finals, he swam with a time of 46.30 and ended up in 13th place. Richard Selznick ’21 swam the 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 16:42.53. 

On day three, Lu won second place in the ‘C’ final in the 200-yard backstroke, finishing with a time of 2:08.51. He was only a couple seconds off of the first place winner. In the final relay of the day, Zitelny, Ohno-Machado, Arcemont and Wohl competed in the 400-yard freestyle relay and finished in eighth place with a time of 3:06.68. This time is more than two seconds off their previous school record that they set two years ago.