DeGrazia, Kirchner Sweep GNAC Weekly Awards

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CHICOPEE, Mass. – Elms College freshman swimmers Devon DeGrazia (Westport, Mass.) and Ashley Kirchner (Dalton, Mass.) were named the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) swimmer and rookie of the week respectively as announced by the organization on Tuesday.

DeGrazia clocked four individual school records and was part of a relay team that set a new pool and school record to help lift the Blazers to a 137-120 victory over Simmons College.

The 200-meter medley relay team of DeGrazia, sophomore Tessa Dudunake (Northampton, Mass.), sophomore Emalee Furtek (Ludlow, Mass.) and sophomore Chalis Bird (Windsor, Mass.) began the meet with a pool record and school record time of 2:12.01. DeGrazia led the relay off registering a new 50-meter backstroke school record time of 32.91.

DeGrazia also notched school records in the 200-meter freestyle (2:18.47), the 100-meter freestyle (1:03.61) and the 400-meter freestyle (5:04.47).

Kirchner claimed first place honors in the 800-meter freestyle clocking a new school record of 10:40.26, besting Marie Waterhouse's previous record of 10:57.13 which had stood since 2007. Kirchner also glided to the wall first in the 100-meter butterfly in a time of 1:16.12.