Pictured Above: Junior Anu Nihipali (Photo By: Mike McLaughlin) 
 
Full Meet Results
Final Team Scores
 
Piscataway, NJ – The Wagner women's swimming and diving team closed out the Frank Elm Invitational, shattering five more records Sunday at the Werblin Recreation Center. The Seahawks finished the weekend with nine broken records for the meet.
 
Wagner placed sixth overall with 747 points at the conclusion of the invitational. Despite the sixth place finish, the Seahawks finished first out of all of the Northeast Conference (NEC) members that attended the Frank Elm invite. Central Connecticut finished seventh behind Wagner with 691 points and Sacred Heart took 10th with 210 points.
 
"I'm very proud of the girls' effort this weekend," said head coach Colin Shannahan. "We have raised our training to a higher level this year and it's nice to see their effort and consistent hard work starting to pay off. On much shorter rest than last year, we saw significantly faster swims, so we are headed in the right direction."
 
The 400 Free Relay team of junior Anu Nihipali (Honolulu, HI/Hawaii Preparatory Academy), freshman Dorian McMenemy (Northborough, MA/Algonquin Regional), and sophomore's Kirsty Hessing (Bloomington, IL/Normal Community) and Maddie McNichol (Downingtown, PA/Henderson) claimed fourth place overall in a Wagner school-record time of 3:26.48.
 
Nihipali put on another impressive performance in the final day of competition, picking up her second gold medal of the three-day affair when she took first place in the 100 Free (49.99). After Sunday morning's prelims, Nihipali was seated second going into finals. The junior swam a 50.95 Sunday morning which broke the Wagner school record from 2013. That all changed Sunday night when the Hawaii native recorded a remarkable 49.99 to take first place overall in the event. Her time of 49.99 broke the Wagner school record she set earlier in the day, is a NCAA qualifying "B" cut and shattered the Frank Elm meet record which stood since 2005. It is now the fastest time in the NEC as well.
 
During Sunday morning's prelims, junior Katja Claesson (Fullerton, CA/Troy) finished her weekend on a high note, time trailing the 100 Breaststroke and making the U.S. Winter National qualifying mark while resetting the Wagner school record she had set the day before with a time of 1:02.81. The junior concluded competition with the 200 Breaststroke during Sunday evening's finals, claiming seventh place overall with a time of 2:18.67.
 
Senior Amanda Lucia (Easthampton, MA/Easthampton) was seated fifth heading into Sunday night's finals after swimming a 2:04.16 in prelims that morning. The senior dropped two places to claim third overall in the event during finals, touching the wall in a time of 2:01.64.
 
In the timed final of the 1,650 Freestyle, senior Maggie Shaw (Chantilly, VA/Chantilly) finished eighth overall with a time of 17:10.24 while sophomore teammate Leahi Camacho (Kailua Kona, HI/Kealakene) recorded a 17:43.08 which would place her 18th overall.
 
Senior Erin Malone (Sewell, NJ/Washington Township) took 10th place overall in the 200 Back after being seated 13th going into finals while fellow senior Seahawk Kaitlin Murtha (New Fairfield, CT/New Fairfield) dropped a place claiming 17th overall after being seated 18th in the same event. Malone recorded a time of 2:03.39 while Murtha posted a 2:05.97, respectively.
 
It was historic day for the Wagner Diving Program as senior Erica Curry (Fountain Valley, CA/Fountain Valley) attempted the women's platform, the first diver to ever do so for the Seahawks. Curry placed sixth with a school-record mark of 134.35 points.
 
"Our divers had a fantastic meet and remain one of the strongest aspects of the lineup," added Shannahan. "This was the first time in Wagner history that we had a diver compete on the platform and Erica [Curry] was outstanding."
 
Wagner will return to action December 2-5 when Claesson, Lucia, and Nihipali attend the 2015 AT&T U.S. Winter National Championships at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, WA. 


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