Trinity Women Surge to Lead After Day Two of the 2014 SCAC Swimming & Diving Championship

ROCKWALL, Texas -- Trailing Colorado College by two points heading into the day's events, Trinity University surged to a 111-point lead following Day Two of the 2014 SCAC Swimming & Diving Championships. Official Website | Thursday's Complete Results | Team Scores | Video Recap

After earning a 90-19 advantage over Colorado College in the first diving event, Trinity now leads the competition with a team score of 343 points. Colorado College is second with 232 points and UC-Santa Cruz is third with 180 points. Rounding out the standings after Day Two, Southwestern University is fourth with 153 points, Centenary College is fifth with 137 points and Austin College is sixth with 55 points.

Trinity scored big in the day's first event, women's 1-meter diving, as the Tigers swept the top four spots and five of the top six positions. Sophomore Ashley Heline became the ninth consecutive Trinity diver to win the event as she scored 454.10 points to earn her first career diving victory. Senior Kathryn Sheldon was second with 437.50 points, freshman Mollie Patzke was third with 408.95 points and senior Gabriella Caglieris was fourth with 372.95 points.

In the first swimming event of the evening session, Trinity's Melanie Gustafson won the 500 freestyle in a time of 5:03.69 as the senior claimed her second consecutive title in the event and fourth overall career SCAC win. Fellow senior Meghan Varner was second in a time of 5:14.54 and junior Emma Holmes of Colorado College was third in a time of 5:16.27.

In the women's 200 IM, defending SCAC Swimmer-of-the-Year sophomore Kara Beauchamp made her presense felt immediately, outkicking strong challenges from Centenary senior Rachel Olson and Colorado College sophomore Olivia Dilorati. Beauchamp took top honors with a record finish of 2:06.27, breaking the former SCAC championship mark set in 2009. Olson was second in a time of 2:07.21 and Dilorati followed in third with a time of 2:07.36. All three times were good for NCAA 'B' cuts. The win was the fourth individual title for Beauchamp and the second consecutive in the 200 IM.

Junior Lydia Jones of Trinity took top honors in the 50 free with a winning time of 24.08 and defeating the defending champion of the event, senior Brenna Day of Colorado College, who came in second in a time of 24.23. Senior Rachel Berude of Trinity was third with a finishing time of 24.65.

In the last event of the night on the women's side, and for the second day in a row, Colorado College claimed first place and set a school record in a medley relay. The foursome of Katy Martinez, Jackie Nonweiler, Dilorati and Day won the 400-yard medley relay in a time of 3:55.98. Their combined effort cut 4.2 seconds off the previous CC standard of 4:00.18, also set at the Rockwall ISD Natatorium a little less than a year ago.

Southwestern and Trinity finished 2-3 in the relay, but both were disqualified for early takeoffs on exchanges, leading to Centenary College (4:03.17) and UC-Santa Cruz (4:04.21) earning second- and third-place honors.

Competition continues on Friday with preliminaris beginning at 10:30 a.m., and finals at 6:30 p.m. Click here for the complete schedule of events.