HAMPTON, Va. — The Catholic women's swimming and diving team found itself in fourth place after day one at the Yellow Jacket Invitational on Friday.

The Cardinals secured 165 points to narrowly miss the top three in a field of eight. Washington and Lee gained a sizable lead in first with 389. 5 points followed by Salisbury in second (308. 5) and Randolph-Macon in third (185). 

Two Catholic teams scored points in the opening 200 free relay event. Emily Blaskovich, Izzy Giannetto, Emily Albans, and Grace Kelly placed sixth with a time of 1:39.59. They were followed by Reyna Patrick, Tara Wiarda, Kaitlin Patt and Claire Brockmann who combined to swim a 1:43.20 of tenth. 

Molly Foltz made the 500 free final after swimming a 5:16.00 in the prelims to snag one of the last two remaining spots. She improved her time by over a second in finals, clocking a 5:14.97 to place sixth. Madison Gozdan also made the finals in her event, the 200 IM. She placed seventh in an extremely competitive field with a time of 2:12.29. 

Blaskovich added an individual point-scoring effort to her day with a strong swim in the 50 free final. In an heat that saw all eight swimmers finish within less than a second, Blaskovich touched the wall in seventh with a time of 24.81. 

In the 400 medley relay, the Cardinals had two teams score points to round out the day. Wiarda, Bella Mugno, Albans, and Blaskovich beat out their next closest competitors by over three seconds to notch fourth. They finished in 3:58.91 to pick up 34 points for the team.

Maura Sadowski, Gozdan, Olivia Palubinski, and Brockmann added another 24 points with their ninth place finish. The squad clocked a 4:11.38 to finish ahead of five other teams. 

The Cardinals are back in action tomorrow as they compete in day two of the Yellow Jacket Invitational. The morning session will begin at 10 a.m. with finals starting at 6 p.m.