Sophomore Max Koch placed seventh in the 500 freestyle, and lowered his career-best time to 4:44.39 in the prelims - the sixth-fastest in program history.

WOOSTER, Ohio - The College of Wooster women's swimming and diving team placed two swimmers in the championship heat of the 500 freestyle to highlight the first day of the 2016 Wooster Invitational held at the Ellen Shapiro Natatorium.

Wooster sits in fifth place in both genders with 263 points on the men's side and 245 points in the women's standings. Notable, the men's ranking marks a two-spot improvement from the end of day one at the 2015 Wooster Invitational.

Case Western Reserve University leads the field in both genders with 502 points (women) and 423 (men). In the women's meet, Div. II Edinboro University is second at 462 points, followed by Div. II Gannon University and Westminster College, who each have 318 points. In the men's standings, Westminster ranks second with 381 points, and is followed by Gannon's 360 points.

Wooster's freestyle depth was on full display in the first non-relay championship session event as Emma Fikse and Anna McGlade touched third and fifth respectively in the 500-yard race. Fikse touched at 5:09.56, and finished in the top-three in the event at the Wooster Invitational for the second straight year, while McGlade hit the deck at 5:15.39.

In the men's race, Max Koch bettered his career-best 500 freestyle time to 4:44.39 in prelims – the sixth-fastest in program history – and posted a 4:47.17 in the finals heat to place seventh.

Sticking with the men, Cameron Gelwicks splashed into Wooster's top-10 in the 200 individual medley, with his time of 1:58.53 in prelims stacking up as the sixth-fastest in program history. In the finals, the sophomore clocked in at 1:59.06 to place eighth in the championship heat.

In relay action, Wooster opened the meet in a tightly-contested 200 freestyle relay pack as less than three seconds separated teams one-through-seven on the women's side, with the Scots' quartet of Fikse, Jamie Hibbs, Megan Gross, and Maggie Layde teaming up to turn in a 1:40.07.

On the men's side, Griffin Campbell, Ryan Campbell, Cameron Gelwicks, and Aaron Brown touched at 1:27.15, and again was right there in a tight mix and less than four seconds separated the top six teams.

In the final relay of the evening, Conner Gelwicks, Griffin Campbell, Trey Schopen, and Cameron Gelwicks turned in a blistering 3:30.83 to capture sixth-place in the 400 medley relay.

An event earlier, Wooster's women's unit of Alison Hsu, Rachel Mandel, Layde and Fikse clocked in at 4:07.11 to take eighth-place.

Other top 10 swims were turned in by the men's quartet of Garrett Layde, Burke Poeting, Schopen, and Ric Reynolds, who were ninth in the 200 freestyle relay (1:28.02).

On the women's side, other top 10 swims were turned in by the 200 freestyle relay consisting of Lissy de la Chapelle, Annabelle Hopkins, Avery Pearson, and Nell Kacmarek, who placed 10th (1:42.36) and Sarah Padrutt, who turned in a 10th-place effort (5:21.00) in the 500 freestyle.

The Wooster Invitational continues on Friday with the prelim session at 10 a.m., the first diving session at 2 p.m., and the final session at 6 p.m. Note, the diving sessions take place at Timken Natatorium on the campus of The College of Wooster.