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GRANTHAM, Pa. - The Messiah women's swimming team finally opened their 2018-19 home slate with a double-dual against the Stevenson Mustangs and Immaculata Mighty Macs on Friday night. The Falcons earned a pair of comfortable victories over the Mustangs and Mighty Macs by scores of 125-68 and 161-27, respectively.
 
The Falcons claimed a total of seven events on the night, including a pair of victories from Kaylee Hollenbach in the 200 IM (2:15.69) and the 100 Back (1:00.56) to lead the individual effort.
 
Fresh off being named the MAC Swimmer of the Week, Hollenbach continued to claim events. After winning the 200 IM by more than three seconds over the second-place finisher Melanie Milam, she won finished first in the 100 Back by nearly two seconds over Stevenson's Colby Stein. Molly Martin also earned a top-three finish in the 100 Back, taking third in 1:04.08. Martin earned two other top-three finishes on Friday night, taking third in the 100 Breast (1:14.75) and second in the 200 Free (2:07.03.
 
Martin was sandwiched between a pair of teammates in the 200 Free with Britta Heath winning the event in 2:04.36 and Rachel Bruns getting to the wall in 2:07.65 for third-place.
 
The Falcons also went one-two-three in the 100 Free with Cassie Cotton leading the charge in a time of 55.08. Emily Decker (57.07) and Kaitlyn Chemidlin (1:00.53) were close behind in second and third.
 
Maelyn Elder claimed the 500 Free in convincing fashion, winning the event by nearly 30 seconds in a time of 5:29.91. Molly Elspas also took third in the event, touching in 6:04.15.
 
In the 1000 Free, Nancie Ziegler turned in one of the most impressive races of the evening by beating her two female competitors as well as the three men's times in the event. Ziegler got to the wall in 11:11.13, more than a minute and 20 seconds ahead of second place in the women's race and 16 seconds ahead of the best men's time in the event.
 
Nicea McCabe and Holly Hagar finished in second and third in the 50 Free with times of 26.38 and 27.09, respectively, Alley Sell took second in the 100 Fly (1:03.01) to round out the highlights from the individual efforts for Messiah on the evening.
 
Messiah also turned in strong showings in the two relays contested on Friday. In the final race of the night, Messiah teams finished first and second in the 200 Free Relay. The crew of McCabe, Brittany Pond, Decker, and Cotton won the event with a time of 1:44.27 while the team of Ziegler, Sell, Bruns, and Hagar took second in 1:48.99. The Falcons would have made it a clean sweep of the relays, but a disqualification in the 400 Medley Relay tossed out their first-place finish. The team of Hagar, Bruns, Decker, and Pond gave Messiah their best official finish in the event with a time of 4:25.81.
 
With the strong showings, Messiah moves to 8-2 overall and 6-0 in the Middle Atlantic Conference. The Falcons will be back in action on Saturday, Jan. 26 when they travel to York College to take on the Spartans at 11:00 a.m.
 

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