WEBSTER, NY – The Alfred University women's swimming team completed its first day of the four-day championship meet, the 2023 Allegheny Empire Swimming & Diving Championships, held at Webster Aquatic Center on Wednesday evening.
 
The Saxons sit in seventh place out of the 10 teams that registered points and were fourth within the Empire 8.
 
The first top finish was the 200-yard medley relay team of Ivy Vallely (Lancaster, NY/Lancaster), Mia Spencer (Omaha, NE/Omaha Central), Kamila Roman (Mamaroneck, NY/Mamaroneck) and Sarah Anderson (Wayne, PA/Radnor) as they combined for a time of 1:54.93, just 0.35 seconds away from jumping over the team from Penn State Behrend. The time earned the Saxons sixth place and 34 overall points.
 
The B-team of Alexandra Simmons (Danbury, CT/Danbury), Erika Purdy (Syracuse, NY/Cicero North), Eden Vallely (Lancaster, NY/Lancaster) and Macie Francisco (Vestal, NY/Vestal) also earned points for AU in the 200-medley relay. They swam a 2:04.13 to beat out Utica University by over six seconds, finishing 16^th overall and adding another 10 points.
 
The 800-yard freestyle A-team of Spencer, Simmons, Maureen Derry (Asheville, NC/Asheville) and Ivy teamed up for a sixth-place finish with a time of 8:30.13. Utica was able to jump over AU in the standings with a diver competing on the 1-meter board, finishing fourth and scoring 19 points.
 
AU will compete in time trials to start individual pool events tomorrow morning at 10:00am with finals slated to start later in the evening at 5:00pm.