Women’s Swim and Dive at 2024 Big 8 Championships - Day 1

We kicked off the Big 8 Championships with the 500 freestyles in the prelims. All four of our 500 swimmers went a personal best, each dropping their times by 14+ seconds. Kennedy Brubaker placed 1st in the entire event by going a 5:18.61, Kenna Dooley placed 3rd by going a 5:22.15, Ashley Van Diggelen placed 14th with a 6:02.97, and Ariana Muñoz placed 16th with a 6:12.15. All four of the girls will swim this again tonight at the finals, where they have a chance to drop even more time.

After the 500, Ellie Fox and Emma York swam the 200 individual medley event. They both dropped their times by a significant amount. Ellie dropped 13 seconds by going a time of 2:27.68. She also placed 8th overall and will get to swim this again tonight in the finals. Emma York dropped 14 seconds by swimming a 2:47.02. She too will swim this again tonight in the finals after placing 13th overall.

We had four girls swim the 50 freestyle. Ally Ratto placed 7th with a 26.14. Jenna Bigelow tied for 11th with a 26.64. Dillan DeLeon placed 18th with a 27.93. Bella Servin placed 25th with a 31.01. Ally and Jenna both get to swim tonight in the finals and Dillan is an alternate for tonight.

 

Finals:

After having a couple hours off the girls were ready to go for the evening of finals! We started with the 200 Free relay that was swam by Ally Ratto, Jenna Bigelow, Kenna Dooley, and Kennedy Brubaker. They went seeded in as a 1:45.34 and finished at a 1:42.18. They worked together to drop 3 seconds and placed 4th overall.

After that was the 500 freestyle yet again with all four girls swimming in the console heat (2) and in the final heat (2). All four of them dropped time from their morning swims! Kennedy Brubaker entered in as the first seed with a time of 5:18.61 and finished second overall swimming a time of 5:16.60. Kenna Dooley went into the final heat as a 5:22.15 and placed third overall with a 5:19.91. Ashley Van Diggelen and Ariana Muñoz both swam in the console heat. Ashley dropped 2 seconds and went a 5:59.65 placing 14th overall. Ariana placed 16th and went a 6:10.94, dropping 2 seconds.

Both Ellie Fox and Emma York got the chance to swim the 200 Individual Medley again. Ellie swam in the final heat placing 8th overall and we a 2:26.00. She dropped 1 second since this morning. Emma finished at a 2:45.24 dropping nearly 2 seconds since the morning session. Emma placed 13th overall.

Jenna Bigelow and Ally Ratto both swam the 50 free tonight in both the final and console heat. Ally swam a 26.20 placing 7th overall. Jenna swam a 26.27 dropping time since the morning. Jenna placed 11th with her swim.

The last event of the night was the 400 Medley relay. Ally Ratto, Esme de la Torre, Jenna Bigelow, and Kennedy Brubaker made up the relay. Together they dropped 13 seconds by going a 4:17:61.