Penn Quakers swimmer Lia Thomas wins 100-yard freestyle, ends with 4 titles at Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, won her third individual Ivy League championship on Saturday night by out-touching Yale's Iszac Henig, a transgender man, in the highly anticipated 100-yard freestyle.

Thomas finished the meet with four titles after leading the Quakers to victory in the 400 freestyle relay later Saturday.

Thomas finished the 100 free in 47.63 seconds, breaking the meet and Blodgett Pool records that were set by Henig just hours earlier in the morning preliminaries. Henig finished in 47.82, and 2020 Ivy League champion Nikki Venema of Princeton was third in 48.81.

It was the first time this weekend that Thomas, who is a senior, was pushed to the end. Swimming side by side with Henig, Thomas trailed the Yale junior at the halfway point of the race and slowly gained ground before nudging ahead right before the wall. Thomas and Henig embraced over the lane line before Thomas splashed the water with her right hand in celebration. Before leaving the pool, she congratulated Venema.

Thomas' time is the eighth fastest in the nation this season, according to Swim Cloud. She shaved nearly 1.5 seconds off her best time this season.

Henig entered the race as the top seed after setting a Blodgett Pool and Ivy League record in the prelims with a time of 47.80.

Before Saturday, the meet record belonged to Yale's Bella Hindley, who set the mark of 47.85 in 2019. Miki Dahlke owned the pool record of 48.64, set in 2018.

With the win, Thomas became the only three-time individual winner at the meet. She won the 200 freestyle on Friday by nearly three seconds and the 500 freestyle on Thursday by more than seven seconds. Thomas' time in the 200 of 1:43.12 set an Ivy League