Nielsen Wins 3-Meter; Franke, Luigard Set Records at Metro Championships

New Brunswick, NJ – Senior diver GRACE NIELSEN captured the 3-meter event while CLAIRE LUIGARD and MADISON FRANKE each broke school records highlighting Montclair State's first day at the 2019 Metropolitan Championships at Rutgers University on Friday. The women's team is currently in third place with 322 points after six events contested while the men are in fifth place at 115 points. Nielsen accounted for a handful of those points herself in winning the event for the second straight season. Entering the evening finals in second place, Nielsen, already qualified for next month's NCAA Regional event, was able to move up to the top of the podium with a score of 420.65 points. Franke got the first day off to a great start breaking her own record in the 50 freestyle during the morning preliminaries. She swam 24.01 seconds for the new standard which would not last long as she took it down to 23.99 in the finals finishing fourth overall. MARGAUX WINCHOCK was sixth in the same event with a time of 24.60 seconds. Luigard made it two new MSU mark on the day as she too re-established her own record in the 200 IM on her way to finishing second overall. Luigard swam 2:08.46, surpassing her previous record of 2:09.51 set two years ago at the 2017 Metropolitan Championships. Winchock, Luigard, CHRISTINA CUSMANO and Franke combined on a time of 1:36.84 to finish second in the 200 freestyle relay missing out on the Montclair State record by .17 seconds. EMILY ROTHAMEL, Luigard, Winchock and Franke swam 3:57.97 for fourth place. Freshman TAYLOR WADDLETON was 11th in the 500 freestyle posting a time of 5:20.44. For the men, the 200 freestyle relay team of HUNTER ROMANOWSKI, KEVIN HENNINGSEN, Mick VanOosten and KEVIN GIBSON placed sixth with a time of 1:26.41. Gibson was 16th in the 500 free (4:55.10) with KEVIN CLAUSS coming in 11th in the 200 IM (1:56.45). CHARLES COBBERTT finished 12th in the 50 freestyle clocking at 21.47 seconds.