LONG ISLAND, N.Y. - The Auburn women's swim team capped off another astounding day at the 2001 NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships completing day two in the top spot and adding another NCAA title to sophomore Maggie Bowen's resume.

With just one day of competition remaining in the three-day meet, the race stands as the closest in history with Auburn standing in first with 265 points while Georgia is No. 2 (261), Stanford is No. 3 (254.5), Texas as No. 4 (229.5) and Arizona at No. 5 (200).

Bowen picked up her second title of the week taking first in the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:07.26 defeating second-place finisher Michala Kwasny of Southern California by over three seconds (4:10.61). The Jackson, Miss., native also broke her own school record on the event which was previously 4:08.27.

"This was so great," Bowen said. "Last night was awesome, but tonight it is even better. I have had a really good year and I was seeded No. 1 coming into the championships, but I knew it would be a tough race. I have worked hard for this all year and it feels great."

In the 200-yard medley relay, the Tiger relay team of Taylor Spivey, Laura Swander, Cortnee Adams and Eileen Coparropa finished fifth with a season-high time of 1:39.72.

Auburn placed its only 100 butterfly competitor, freshman Demerae Christianson, in the consolation finals where she moved up from a 13th place finish in the morning, to an 11th place finish in the finals with a time of 54.25.

The Tigers had three finalists in the 200 free with freshman Magda Dyszkiewicz taking the top AU spot in seventh (1:47.34), Cassidy Maxwell placed 10th (1:47.68) and Heather Kemp took 11th (1:47.76) to round out the scoring for Auburn.

Senior Brook Monroe again stepped up for the Tigers capturing 10th in the 100 breast with a time of 1:02.01 while freshman Laura Swander moved up from the morning swim into fourth place with a time of 1:00.20. Swander's time of 1:00.20 is a new school record breaking Monroe's previous record time of 1:00.31.

"Laura Swander was really a key for us tonight," head coach David Marsh said. "I was overall very satisfied with our performances."

Ending the individual competition on the day in the 100 back, Spivey placed eighth for Auburn with a time of 54.93.

In the final event of the night, the Auburn 800 free relay team of Kemp, Bowen, Maxwell and Dyszkiewicz placed third with a school-record time of 7:09.66 behind No. 1 Georgia (7:06.48) and No. 2 Stanford (7:07.64).

"We knew that the first day would be our best," Marsh said. "Today we just hoped to stay close. Last night we didn't swim as well as we had hoped in the finals, but tonight we did swim very well.

"Heading into tomorrow, we need to have our best swims. This is such an exciting team race. We said that we would be happy with a top three finish, which would be our best ever, but at this point I am starting to get greedy."