A-10 Swimming Championships: Day 1 Finals Recap

2016 A-10 Men’s & Women’s Championships

The first day of the Atlantic-10 conference championships kicked off today with the men’s and women’s 200 medley and 800 free relays, and the men’s 1-meter diving.

Women

The defending conference champion Richmond got their meet off to a good start claiming the first event of the night, the 200 medley relay, in a time of 1:40.64. The team of Maggie Pope, Annie Lane, Kelley Yang and Natalie Dowzicky combined to edge out second place Duquesne by over half a second (1:41.30) and third place Rhode Island by nearly two (1:42.35).

Davidson College won the 800 free relay, defending their title from last year and just squeaking under their own conference, meet and pool record set last year of 7:16.81 in 7:16.79. The team consisted of Maggie Farrell (1:50.46), Elizabeth Weldon (1:53.71), Elise Lankiewicz (1:44.79), and Angie Healy (1:47.83). Duqesne led at the halfway point (3:38.71), with Davidson well back at 3:44.17, the second slowest halfway split of all teams. Lankiewicz’s key leg brought Davidson into the lead and then Healy finished the job. Duqesne ended up getting disqualified after touching the wall in 2nd. Richmond ended up finishing 2nd (7:20.99) and George Washington was 3rd (7:25.51).

After day one, medley relay champs Richmond hold a slight lead in points with 74, over 800 free relay champs Davidson who are in 2nd with 70.

Men

In the first event of the meet for the men, St. Bonaventure captured the 200 medley relay title in a time of 1:28.35, breaking their own conference and meet record from 2014 (1:28.74). The team of Michael Pilyugin, Preston Schilling, Michael White, and Matt Taccard finished over a second ahead of runner-up Massachusetts. Pilyugin had the fastest backstroke split in the field (22.13) and Schilling had the fastest breaststroke split (24.60). Massachesetts was 1:29.61 for second, and George Washington was third in 1:29.81.

The men’s 1-meter diving came in between the two relays of the night. After finishing 4th in the prelims earlier in the day, La Salle’s Dylan Yurasits took the win finishing with a score of 325.40, over 50 points higher than he was in the prelims. Top seed after the prelims Alex Marra of St. Bonaventure came in 2nd with a score of 301.65, and Trent Kindvall of Massachusetts was 3rd with 285.90.

In the final event of the night, we saw an absolutely crazy finish in the 800 free relay, where Saint Louis University blew a huge lead on the final leg and Massachusetts was able to sneak in for the win, 6:32.37 to 6:32.63. The Massachusetts team consisted of Owen Wright (1:37.81), Brian Stiles (1:38.93), Oliver Wyeth (1:38.67) and Alesndro Bomprezzi (1:36.96). Ryan McCoy (1:35.99) got Saint Louis out to a big lead on the opening leg, a lead they would not relinquish until the final two or three strokes as Bomprezzi closed in 24.87 to out-touch Patrick Schrauth, who closed in 27.55, by 26 one hundredths of a second.

After the comeback win in the 800 free relay, Massachusetts holds a 17 point lead over 2nd place St. Bonaventure & La Salle heading into day 2. Massachusetts has 115, while St. Bonaventure and La Salle are currently knotted at 98 points apiece.

Prelims resume tomorrow at 10 AM EST.

 

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About James Sutherland

James Sutherland

James swam five years at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, specializing in the 200 free, back and IM. He finished up his collegiate swimming career in 2018, graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics. In 2019 he completed his graduate degree in sports journalism. Prior to going to Laurentian, James swam …

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