Several NCAA "B" cuts and a pair of third-place finishes in relay events vaulted the No. 12 Hope College women's swimming and diving team to second place after the opening day of competition at the Total Performance Invite at Kenyon College. 

The host and second-ranked Owls lead the meet with 863 points, while Hope paces the rest of the field with a score of 393 points. 

West Chester (Pennsylvania), a member of NCAA Division II, ranks third with 283.5 points. No. 14 Case Western Reserve (Ohio), No. 17 Carnegie Mellon (Pennsylvania), No. 23 SUNY-Geneseo, NAIA member Lindsey Wilson (Kentucky), and John Carroll (Ohio) are also competing. 

In the 200 freestyle relay, the team of senior Greta Gidley (Franklin, Michigan / Mercy HS), senior Lauren Ryle (Grand Rapids, Michigan / Catholic Central), junior Laurel Wasiniak (Northville, Michigan / Northville) and senior Sara Kraus (Rockford, Michigan / Rockford) opened the evening with a third-place finish, securing an NCAA "B" cut time of 1:34.01. Gidley's lead-off time of 23.76 marked a season-best for her in the 50 free. 

All four swimmers also collected NCAA "B" cuts during the evening session. 

Hope closed the finals session with a near-school record in the 400 medley relay. 

Kraus led off with a season-best 100 backstroke time of 55.78 to improve her existing NCAA "B" cut, while Ryle, freshman Emme D'Errico (Farmington Hills, Michigan / Farmington), and Wasiniak teamed up to post a season-best time of 3:46.24, just .13 seconds off the school record. The mark also improved Hope's existing NCAA "B" cut time.  

Wasiniak and Ryle also swam to a pair of NCAA "B" cuts in the A final of the 50 freestyle. Wasiniak jumped five spots from prelims to place fifth overall, touching the wall in a season-best 23.39, while Ryle swam a 23.57 in the finals to place eighth, just .02 seconds off her season-best time from the morning session (23.55). 

Wasinak's swim is the second-fastest ever at Hope.

Three Hope swimmers qualified for the A final in the 200 individual medley. Gidley and Kraus swapped positions from the prelims to finish fourth and fifth, respectively, with a pair of second-best marks. 

Gidley posted a time of 2:04.51 in the finals, improving by 1.11 seconds from her morning swim, while Kraus's mark of 2:05.25 was .37 seconds better, as both swimmers improved upon NCAA "B" cut times from the morning. Junior Katie Hermann (Canton, Michigan / Mercy) (2:07.42) placed 10th overall. 

D'Errico swam a season-best 2:08.26 in the B final of the 200 IM to place 17th overall and score for Flying Dutch, marking a three-spot improvement from her prelim seeding. The time is the ninth-fastest in Flying Dutch history.

The 500 freestyle saw five Hope swimmers reach the finals. Senior Norah Martin (Middleton, Wisconsin / Middleton) placed 14th overall with a season-best time of 5:11.44, over a second faster than her morning time (5:12.54). 

In the C final of the 500 free, junior Ashlea Swingewood (Carmel, Indiana / Carmel) and senior Grace Wesley (Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan / Grosse Pointe North) led the Flying Dutch with a 2-3 finish to place 12th (5:14.04) and 13th (5:14.19) overall. Freshman Megan Wedeking (Lexington, Kentucky / Lexington Senior) was 15th overall with a time of 5:15.17. 

All three swimmers improved upon their season-best times from the morning prelims, with Wedeking dropping over four seconds. 

Senior Katie Weedon (Whitinsville, Massachusetts / Whitinsville Christian) also scored for Hope in the 500 free, improving her qualifying position by two spots to finish 27th overall. Her time of 5:21.97 was just shy of her season-best 5:21.92, posted in the morning.

In diving, senior Hope Weeda (Grandville, Michigan / Calvin Christian) led Hope with a fifth-place finish on the one-meter board, scoring a season-best 339.38 points. 

The Total Performance Invite will continue on Friday, Nov. 22, with the preliminary session beginning at 10:30 a.m., followed by finals at 6 p.m. Seven different events will take place, as well as the women's three-meter diving competition.