George Mason Wins First Men’s Atlantic 10 Title in Program History

Atlantic 10 – Men and Women

FINAL TEAM SCORES

WOMEN

  1. George Washington – 608
  2. Fordham – 534
  3. Duquesne – 525
  4. Richmond – 453.5
  5. Davidson- 417
  6. St. Bonaventure – 281.5
  7. Massachusetts – 254
  8. George Mason – 219
  9. La Salle – 196
  10. St. Louis – 134
  11. Rhode Island – 79

MEN

  1. George Mason – 657
  2. George Washington – 637.5
  3. St. Bonaventure – 498
  4. La Salle – 438.5
  5. Davidson – 415
  6. Massachusetts – 245.5
  7.  St. Louis – 267
  8. Fordham – 224.5

AWARDS

  • Women’s Coach of the Year: John Young (Davidson)
  • Women’s Most Outstanding Rookie of the Year: Shelby Stanley (Davidson)
  • Women’s Most Outstanding Diver: Maja Boric (Massachusetts)
  • Women’s Diving Coach of the Year: Mandy Hixon (Massachusetts)
  • Women’s Most Outstanding Performer: Mia Bullock (Fordham)
  • Men’s Coach of the Year: Peter Ward (George Mason)
  • Men’s Diving Coach of the Year: Wesley Mattice (George Washington)
  • Men’s Most Oustanding Rookie of the Year: Luke Devore (George Mason)
  • Men’s Most Outstanding Performer: Moritz Fath (George Washington)
  • Men’s Most Outstanding Diver of the Year: Peter Nachtwey (George Washington

On the 4th day of the Atlantic-10 Champs, the George Washington women snapped a 2-year win streak by Duquesne, taking the title by 74 points. Duquesne fell to 3rd this year, after getting outscored by Fordham by 12 points on the last event of the meet, the 400 free relay. Fordham won the relay with a 3:21.10, and the points from the win vaulted them into 2nd place in the team standings. Michelle Martin led the relay off in 51.08, and was followed by Clare Culver in 51.16, Mia Bullock in 49.18, and Theresa Mullen in 49.68.

Of that relay, Mia Bullock was the only individual winner of the day, taking the women’s 200 fly. Bullock was the 2018 champion in the event, but George Washington’s Jackie Torrez won the event last year. Bullock swam a 1:57.60 to retake the title this year, breaking the A-10 meet record, A-10 conference record, and Fordham school record. The previous A-10 Record was held by Torrez with a 1:58.37 from 2019. Torrez came in 2nd this year with a 1:59.26, after swimming 1:59.13 to win the event last year.

Hanna Everhart, the 200 free champion from Day 3, went on to win the women’s 100 free, swimming a 50.32. She used a quick back half of 25.97 to move past 5 of the swimmers in the field on the 2nd 50 of the race. Also of note, this year was the first time in 5 years it didn’t take a 49 in the 100 free to win the A-10 title.

Richmond’s Hannah Grouger completed her sweep of the women’s 200 back, winning her 4th-straight title in the event. Grouger dominated the race this year, winning the event by over 2 seconds with a final time of 1:55.84. She was excellent on the first 150 of the race, splitting 27.12, 29.15, and 29.44 respectively on each 50. Grouger holds the conference record with her winning time from last year, which was 1:54.36. Richmod picked up another win on the day with Margaret Purcell winning the women’s 200 breast in 2:12.84, out-touching St. Bonaventure’s Rachel Kimmel by 0.01 seconds.

George Washington sophomore Andrea Moussier took the women’s 1650 in an extremely tight race. Fordham junior Kate Magill got out to an early lead, clocking a 4:59.97 at the 500 mark, compared to Moussier’s 5:01.23, and 5:02.32 from Fordham freshman Clare Culver. Moussier took the lead after that, flipping at the 1000 in 10:07.70, compared to 10:08.44 from Magill, and 10:09.77 from Culver. Heading into the final 50, Moussier still held a very slight lead, flipping at 16:19.61 to Magill’s 16:19.84, and 16:20.44 for Culver. Culver came home the fastest of the 3 on the last 50, splitting 29.76 to Magill’s 30.10, and Moussier’s 30.14. Moussier got her hand on the wall first with a 16:49.75, with Magill right behind in 16:49.94, and Culver 3rd in 16:50.20. Moussier won the title last year as well, clocking a 16:40.96.

In the men’s meet, George Washington’s 3-year win streak was snapped by George Mason. After a tight battle between George Mason and George Washington, George Mason came out on top by 19.5 points. The victory for George Mason marks their first A-10 title in program history.

George Washington won a number of events on the last day of competition, tightening the gap between themselves and George Mason. The GW men’s 400 free relay won with a 2:57.62, taking the event by well over a second. Freshman Tyler Kawakami led the squad off in 44.47, and was followed by Youssef Ragab (45.27), Dylon Arzoni (44.62), and Swimmer of the Meet Moritz Fath (43.26).

Peter Nachtwey, Named Outstanding Diver of the Meet, won the men’s 3 meter diving. The George Washington junior scored a total of 330.3 points. GW freshman George Aspougalis won the men’s 200 breast with a an A-10 record and GW school record of 1:56.28. The freshman won the race by over 2 seconds, splitting 55.85 on the first 100, and 1:00.43 on the 2nd 100. The conference record and GW school record were both held by George Washington alum Andrea Bolognesi with a 1:56.96. Defending champion Collin O’Brien (St. Louis) came in 5th with a 1:58.58, which was actually slightly faster than he swam to win the event last year (1:58.73).

George Mason freshman Luke Devore won the men’s 200 fly in a 1:45.83 breaking the pool, meet, conference, and George Mason school records. Named Rookie of the Year, Devore bested defending champion Zachary Wolbert, a La Salle sophomore. Devore got out to the early lead, splitting 23.95 and 26.75 on the first 2 50s, hitting the 100 mark at 50.70, while Wolbert was 51.60 at the 100 mark. Wolbert came home faster, 54.33 on the 2nd 100, to Devore’s 55.13. Devore won the race narrowly, touching in 1:45.83, with Wolbert next in 1:45.93. Wolbert held the previous A-10 record with his winning time of 1:46.86 from last year.

Massachusetts junior Tyler Pidde won the men’s 1650 free, swimmign a 15:25.89. Moritz Fath, named Swimmer of the Year, was the defending champion in the mile, but opted to swim the 100 free this year instead. The George Washington senior won the 100 free with a 44.31, after swimming a 44.14 in prelims.

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Dcswim
4 years ago

Sad to see GW come off a dominant win (100+ points iirc) in 2019 to lose to a team that DQd a relay. Big ups to GMU men and GW Women though

Rich
Reply to  Dcswim
4 years ago

GW won by 159 points last year. Interestingly, GMU disqualified the same relay last year (400 MR). Injury took one GW swimmer who scored 35 last year and an Olympic redshirt took another who scored 60. Credit to the GW men and their fans for not making excuses – I am a fan of a different A-10 team. And congratulations to GMU for an impressive win with lots of swimmers putting up big point totals.

Sunshine
4 years ago

Way to go Patriots!!!

BIG DEV FAN 22
4 years ago

50% BIG 50% DEV

Big dev fan 21
4 years ago

Let’s go big dev!