Vanderbilt swim team finishes season at CSCAA

Three Commodores finished in the top 20 at the CSCAA National Invitational Championship.

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Vanderbilt swimming competing at the 2019 SEC Championships. (Vanderbilt Athletics)

Masatomo Shiiki, Staff Writer

The Vanderbilt swim team concluded its season last Saturday at the CSCAA National Invitational Championship at the Beacon Health Aquatic Center in Elkhart, Indiana. A trio of swimmers finished in the top 20, and the team scored 109 points to place 28th among 58 teams.

“Tonight was a great finish to a really successful season for us, we’re looking forward to a little break and then get started on preparing for next season!” said head coach Jeremy Organ.

The duo of Faith Knelson and Ellie Taliaferro advanced to the B-final in the 100 meter individual medley while Kailia Utley finished in the top 10 for the 200-meter butterfly in the preliminary heat on the final day with a time of 2:00.84 minutes. Knelson won the B Final with a time of 55.90 seconds, with Taliaferro coming in 6th place with a time of 56.96 seconds. Both swimmers broke their personal records, and Knelson also broke the school record by 0.7 seconds. In addition to the B final of the 100 IM, Knelso took part in the 50 and 100 breaststroke finals.

Megan Ciezczak posted a time of 51.28 seconds in the preliminary round of the 100m free, while Mercedes Traba was just over a second short of making the finals in the 200 fly touching the wall in 2:04.53 minutes. In total, the Commodores broke records in seven individual events during the 2022-23 season, with Taliaferro breaking three freshman marks.