Rutgers swimming and diving wrapped up its participation at the Minnesota Invitational on Saturday, marking the end of a three-day event in Minneapolis. The team recorded notable achievements, including a first-place finish in platform diving and several new entries on the program’s all-time top-10 performance list.
Sephora Ford secured first place in the platform diving competition with a score of 317.70. This result stands as the second highest in Rutgers history for platform diving, surpassing Bailee Strugill’s earlier mark of 313.45 from this year and trailing only Abigail Knapton’s record of 333.25 set in 2022. Ford’s score was significantly ahead of the second-place finisher, who posted a score of 251.0.
In swimming events, Anna Vlachou finished fourth in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 49.20, which is now the third fastest in school history and the best for Rutgers since 2020. Vlachou also made it onto the top-10 list earlier in the meet during Thursday’s 50 freestyle.
Angelica Bath achieved a top-eight finish in the 200 backstroke with a preliminary time of 1:58.62, placing her tenth on Rutgers’ all-time list for that event.
Blanka Berecz reached an ‘A’ Final in the 200-yard butterfly and finished sixth with a time of 1:59.39. Cameron Kuriger improved her own standing on Rutgers’ top-10 list by finishing with a time of 1:59:58 in the B final—now ranked as eighth fastest overall and seventh fastest among finals times at Rutgers.
As a team, Rutgers placed fifth out of seven teams with a total score of 811.50 points. The University of California led with 1,874 points, followed by Minnesota (1,616.5), Harvard (1,352), Denver (867.5), and UNLV (584.5).
Rutgers will send divers to Midland, Texas for the USA Diving Championship from December 10 to December 16 as their last competition this year before returning to full team action against La Salle on January 23.
