WILMORE, Ky. – A total of eight NAIA National Championship Meet qualifying marks were obtained by the Union College women’s swimming team at the Asbury College Invitational over the weekend. The Lady Bulldogs also finished third in the team standings behind the strong effort.

Her ‘A’ time was in the 1,650-yard freestyle after she posted a time of 19 minutes and 52.52 seconds. She added the ‘B’ cuts in the 200 and 400 individual medley along with the 100 breaststroke and 200 freestyle. Messmer recorded times of 2:29.51 and 5:18.21 in the 200 and 400 individual medley events, respectively. She finished the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:17.70 while her 200 freestyle mark of 2:10.75 was in the first leg of the 800 freestyle relay event.

Kristina Kirk, a freshman from Versailles, Ky., also collected a ‘B’ cut and broke the school record in the 200 backstroke after she completed the event at the 2:30.34 mark.

Eden Ellison (Tamms, Ill.) also broke a program record with a time of 2:49.03 in the 200 butterfly.

Kirk, Messmer, Ellison and Kelli Rogers (Elizabethtown, Ky.) qualified with an ‘A’ cut in the 200 medley relay after the group posted a time of 2:08.95. The same four also broke the Union record with a 9:27.93 in the 800 freestyle relay.

“I am extremely happy with how hard we swam on both days. A two-day invitational meet, with preliminaries and finals has a very exhausting meet schedule,” said head coach Rafael Forti. “Our swimmers showed a lot of energy on both days despite of how tired they were by the end of it.”

Union finished behind the University of the Cumberlands (Ky.), the meet champion, and host Asbury. Berea (Ky.) College was fourth followed by Campbellsville (Ky.) University.

The next event for the Bulldogs is the Centre College Invitational from Jan. 11-12.

For a complete listing of the results, click here.