St. Louis, Mo., Feb. 24, 2018 – The Washington University in St. Louis swimming & diving program wrapped up day two of the Midwest Invitational Saturday evening with the men claiming first place and the women concluding in second in Chicago, Ill.

The WashU men totaled six first place finishes on Saturday. Freshman Alex Poellinger posted the Division III's 15^th best time in the 1,650 freestyle when he claimed first with an NCAA B cut time of 15:52.03. Senior Ross Brown also added a B cut time for the Bears in the 50 freestyle time trials as he posted a season-best 20.58.

Sophomores Mitchell Grinwald and Michael Perry had first place finishes with in their respective events and also teamed up in the Bears 800 freestyle relay win with senior Wending Zhu and junior Christopher Walker (7:00.33). Grinwald won the 100 freestyle (52.01) individually and Perry took first in the 200 freestyle (1:42.46).

Also claiming first place finishes were sophomore Vincent Huang in the 100 breaststroke (56.49) and sophomore Andrew Oh in the 200 butterfly (1:54.76).

WashU's women totaled five first place efforts. The winning team of freshman Anne Whitsel, junior Emily Mansour, sophomore Maddie Nelson and sophomore Claire Wiley finished the 400 freestyle relay in 3:42.92. Mansour and Wiley also earned individual first place finishes in the 100 freestyle (53.76) and 200 backstroke (2:10.27) respectively.

The remaining two first place finishes were by sophomore Stephanie Li in the 200 breaststroke (1:05.22) and sophomore Caroline Mertz in the 1,650 freestyle (17:50.65).

The Bears will finish their season Wed.-Sat., March 21-24 in Indianapolis, Ind. during the NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving National Championships. Be sure to stay up to date on all your Bears scores and awards by following @WashUBears on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.