Orellana, Graham and Andrews Sparkle on Day Two of Patriot Invitational
FAIRFAX, VA. - The Howard Bison continued their momentous showing at the 2009 Patriot Invitational starting from the first races of the morning and rolling through the final relays at night.
The impressive showings were led for the men by senior captain Miguel Orellana and for the women by freshman Chelsea Andrews.
In the preliminary session, Orellana swam a season-best time of 1:44.05 to claim eighth place and a birth in the championship heat. Orellana rewrote his season-best mark with a well-executed time of 1:43.23 and a fourth place mark for the competition, the best showing for the Bison thus far in the meet.
Orellana combined with fellow senior Brad Worrell and freshman Zadok Issacs to claim Howard's best showing in the relays in the final race of the day, the 800 freestyle relay. The men's time of 7:15.17 was their best of the season and good enough for 12th place on the evening.
On the women's side, Andrews' magnificent efforts were rewarded with return swims in the evening. In the preliminary session, the freshman went a new career-best time of 1:00.11 which got her 24th place after all morning swims were done. At night, Andrews began her evening routine by moving up three spots into 21st with a time of 1:00.17. Andrews immediately turned around, both in preliminaries and finals, to swim the 200 freestyle. In the morning, the rookie again set a new personal-best time of 1:58.16 which put her in 23rd place. In her fourth competition of the day, Andrews swam her finest race, going 1:57.30 which vaulted her into 19th.
For the relays, the women began the evening session with a 15th place finish in the 200 medley relay. Freshmen Summer Davis, Cachanda Evans, E'lan Brewer teamed with senior Alyssa Rogers to swim a 1:57.35. The Lady Bison closed the evening with Brewer and Rogers combining with senior Polo Edwards and Andrews in the 800 freestyle relay to, again, finish in 15th place with a time of 8:22.55.
Sunday will be the final day of competition at the Patriot Invitational. Preliminaries will begin at 9AM and finals at 5PM.
