Courtesy: Rutgers Athletics
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – It is the final tune-up for the Rutgers women’s swimming & diving team as the Scarlet Knights close out the dual meet season at Nebraska on Jan. 28-29.
Last Time In The Water
- A trio of Scarlet Knights captured two event wins in a setback to Villanova in RU’s final home meet of 2021-22 on Jan. 16.
- Graduate student Abigail Knapton continued to shine on the boards with the top scores on 1M and 3M.
- Graduate student Alice Scarabelli and junior Sofia Chichaikina both helped the 400 medley relay team to the top time while Scarabelli put in a win in the 200 free and Chichaikina came in victorious in the 200 fly.
RSmart
- Rutgers women’s swimming and diving earned 16-straight College Swimming Coaches Association of America Scholar All-American Team Award on Tuesday.
- Rutgers boasted a 3.49 fall term grade point average marking the fourth-highest GPA among Big Ten teams. Six Scarlet Knights collected perfect 4.0 GPAs for the semester, while a total of 12 members earned a GPA above a 3.5.
- Last season, the Scarlet Knights also boasted 17 Big Ten All-Academic honorees.
BIG TEN WEEKLY HONOREES
- Abigail Knapton has won two Big Ten Diver of the Week awards while Sofia Lobova has picked up two Big Ten Freshman Swimmer of the Week honors.
- Lobova picked up her first conference rookie honors after helping the Rutgers 400 free relay team to victory and capturing two times among the Rutgers top ten along with an NCAA B cut at Big Al Invitational in early December.
- Lobova, who swam the second leg of the 400 free relay, aided in the squad’s time of 3:18.50, which was .44 seconds off the school record. The Scarlet Knight and her other three teammates also all logged splits under 50 seconds. The freshman also raced in three A finals – the 50 free, 100 free and 100 fly. In the 100 free, Lobova was the runner-up capturing a time of 49.38 for an NCAA B cut and the third-fastest time in the 100 free in RU history. She was .08 seconds off the lead and .34 seconds off the school record. Lobova also had another NCAA B cut time with the third-fastest swim in the Rutgers record book with a time of 53.31 in the 100 fly. In the 50 free, Lobova took fourth with a personal best time of 22.91.
- Lobova also earned B1G Freshman of the Week honors back on Nov. 17 after a pair of victories in the 50 and 100 free in the Battle for the Cannon Trophy at Princeton.
- Knapton, meanwhile, earned her first weekly honor the week of Oct. 13 scoring 309.53 on 1M and 333.45 on 3M breaking both the previous Crandall Pool benchmarks by 10.95 points in the season-opening victory at Army.
- Knapton earned her second distinction after winning three events on Oct. 29 & 30 on the road at Purdue and IUPUI. In RU’s first Big Ten competition of the year, Knapton won 3M scoring 329.85 and was 1.35 points short of also taking home the 1M title with a runner-up performance of 285.15 In the Scarlet Knights’ win at IUPUI the next day, Knapton won 1M scoring 303.83 and 3M scoring a season-best 344.33, which is also the third-best in Rutgers history and fourth-best score in the Big Ten.
- Knapton is the first Scarlet Knight diver to earn the honor since Addison Walkowiak in 2017.
OPEN WATER
- Cat Salladin took seventh at the women’s CSCAA Open Water National Championship on Sept. 17. A former member of the USA World Championship Open Water Team, Salladin was one of 70 women’s distance swimmers competing in the 5K course and one of four members of the Big Ten to finish among the top 10.
- The Scarlet Knight completed the course in 1:04.45.70 and was 12.10 off reaching the top five and earning an invite to the USA Swimming 5K Open Water Championships.
UP NEXT
- The Big Ten Championships are slated for Feb. 16-19 in Madison, Wisconsin.
