PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Shannon Hesse and Gabi Valladares captured gold medals to lead the TCNJ women's swimming team on Day 2 of the Metropolitan Conference championship on Friday.

Hesse won the 50 free and Valladares cruised to the 3-meter title for the Lions, who ended the day in second place in the team standings with 377 points.

Hesse was sensational in the 50 free, notching an NCAA B-cut of 23.58 in prelims and going even lower to finish in 23.43 in the night session and capture her first individual title at METs. The time is good for 14^th in all of Division III. Rachel Hannah finished third in 24.21, just off her personal-best 24.17 from the prelims, and Cameron Carrazza took seventh at 24.72.

Valladares continued her sensational season with a dominating effort in the 3-meter dive, putting up a 449.95 to move into 15^th in the nation and outscore the runner-up from Merchant Marine by over 100 points.

Zoe Chan dropped almost a second from her prelim time and finished runner-up in the 200 IM, clocking in at 2:07.79. Jamie Bowne finished fifth in 2:10.33, and Colleen Scanlon produced a big PR to finish 15^th (2:17.00).

Hannah, Haley Crispell, Chan, and Hesse were runners-up in the 200 medley relay, finishing in 1:46.39 to move inside the top-30 on the national performance list.

Faith Cortright won the B-final in the 500 free in a dead heat with teammate Autumn-Brook Tucker, touching the wall in 5:15.35 to beat out her rookie counterpart by a tenth of a second. Those times would have been enough to finish fifth and sixth, respectively, in the championship final. Allison Lowry, who recorded a three-second PR of 5:22.63 in prelims, placed 16^th at 5:27.97.

METs continues Saturday morning with prelims in the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, and 100 back.