CLEVELAND, Ohio (GreenBayPhoenix.com) - The Green Bay women's swimming and diving team ended day one of the 2011 Horizon League Championships atop the leaderboard at the Busbey Natatorium on the campus of Cleveland State. The Phoenix women accumulated 155 points on Wednesday, 21 points ahead of second-place Milwaukee. Green Bay's men concluded day one of the four-day meet in fifth place with 66 points.

Standing out on the women's side was senior Deanna DeGrand (Green Bay, Wis.), who placed first in the 1000-yard freestyle with a school-record time of 10:09.99. DeGrand beat her old mark of 10:11.96, which was set at last season's Horizon League meet.

Freshman Kendra Rottier (Green Bay, Wis.) also had an impressive 1000 free, placing third with a personal best time of 10:18.50.

The Phoenix women had a pair of strong relay performances Wednesday, placing second in the 200 free relay and third in the 200 medley relay. The quartet of Alyssa Danielson (Rogers, Minn.), Shannon Demrow (Algonquin, Ill.), Emilee Harry (Sheboygan, Wis.) and Parker Wolf (Kohler, Wis.) touched in at 1:32.49 in 200 free relay in the meet's opening event, a time that was good enough for the national B standard. Danielson then teamed up with Amber Bartholomew (Alexandria, Minn.), Amy Burback (Waunakee, Wis.) and Katelyn Bodin (Maple Grove, Minn.) in the 200 medley relay, posting a time of 1:43.31.

To watch an interview with the 200 free relay team, click here.

The women's squad also placed three in the top eight in the 3-meter diving finals, as senior Kayla Deters (Sauk Rapids, Minn.) placed fourth with a score of 263.40, while freshmen Carrie Dinelli (Northbrook, Ill.) and Merissa Gatti (Lakeville, Minn.) placed sixth (235.10) and eighth (218.15) in their first conference championship meet.

Green Bay's men turned in a pair of fifth-place relay finishes Wednesday, finishing the 200 free relay in 1:22.47 and the 200 medley relay in 1:32.64.

The Green Bay swimming and diving squads are back in action Thursday, with prelims beginning at 9 a.m. CT and finals starting at 4 p.m. CT. Fans can watch all the finals events live on GreenBayPhoenix.com by visiting the Championship Central page.