GWU Men, Duquesne Women Break Conference Records On Day 1 Of A-10 Championships

2022 Atlantic 10 Conference Championships

• February 16 to 19, 2022
• Geneva, Ohio (SPIRE Institute)
• Championship Central
• Live Results
• Live Video: WatchESPN
• Fan Guide

The 2022 Atlantic 10 Conference Championships kicked off Wednesday evening with the 200 medley relay and the 800 relay, with the George Washington men sweeping both races and the Richmond and Duquesne women taking one apiece.

Men’s Recap

After a day of racing, George Washington, the defending champions and favorite to win the meet, holds a 16 point lead over the rest of the conference after their two relay wins.

GWU won almost every relay at least a year’s championships but were missing one race to make it a complete relay sweep, as a disappointing DQ in the 200 medley relay left them void of a title in that event. However, this year they stormed back, redeeming themselves in the event in a record-breaking fashion.

The quartet of Marek Osina, Tyler Kawakami, Djurde Matic, and Karol Mlynarczyk put up a time of 1:25.78 for George Washington in the men’s 200 medley relay, which smashed the old conference record of 1:27.06 set by Geroge Washington in the 2018-19 season by nearly two seconds. Osina gave his team the early lead with a 21.52 backstroke split, while Kawakami added onto the lead to split 24.39 on breaststroke. Next, Matic widened the gap with a massive 20.11 butterfly split, the fastest of the field by 0.75 seconds. Finally, Mlynarczyk closed things off with a 19.76 freestyle split.

George Mason was second with a time of 1:27.50 with their anchor Will Ratastter closing in a field-leading time of 19.69, and him and Mlynarczyk were the only men under 20 seconds in the freestyle portion of the relay. Davidson, the defending conference champions in this event, finished third with a time of 1:29.08 that was just off of the 1:29.03 they swam last year. 

GWU continued their dominance heading into the 800 free relay, when Osina, Josh Legge, Connor Rodgers, and Ethan Tulenko won the race by nearly three seconds in a time of 6:31.13. In addition, Osina’s leadoff time of 1:37.45 is a new best time for him and fast enough to have won the individual 200 free race last season, which was taken by George Mason’s Anthony Nguyen in a 1:38.18. 

St. Bonaventure improved on their time of 6:39.54 from last year’s meet to take the runner up finishing in 6:34.41, while Fordham was third in a time of 6:38.70. Fordham’s Alex Wilhelm had the fastest time of the field, splitting a 1:36.91 in the second leg of the relay.

A disqualification from George Mason’s 800 free relay hurts their ranking and puts them in last place after Day One.

Team Scores After Day One:

1. George Washington- 80
2. St. Bonaventure- 64
3. Davidson- 60
4. Massachusetts- 56
5. Fordham- 54
6. Saint Louis- 52
7. La Salle- 50
8. George Mason- 34

Women’s Recap

Despite not having any event wins, two second-place relay finishes and three diving finalists put the George Washington women in a strong 26-point lead with 104 points earned on Day one.

Richmond, the defending champions from 2021, started off the meet with a 200 medley relay victory from Katelyn Pennell, Sara Greene, Abby Fuller, and Lauren Medlin in a time of 1:40.10. After entering the meet with zero top seeds, the team’s early success this meet may indicate that they were saving everything they saved everything for the end of the season. The GWU women were second with a time of 1:40.41, while Davidson, the 2021 champions in this event, took third in a 1:40.83. All three podium finishers were faster than last year’s winning time of 1:40.92.

The George Mason women would have finished third in the relay with a time of 1:40.60, but much like their mens’ relays, they were disqualified and did not score any points.

The second conference record of the night fell to Duquesne’s women’s 800 free relay of Mendy De Rooi, Hayley Taylor, Emma Menzer, and Hanna Everhart. Their time of 7:15.00 just edges out George Washington’s previous record of 7:15.43. Most notably, De Rooi, the fifth-year transfer from the University of the Cumberlands, swam a leadoff split of 1:47.81 that now is the top time in the conference by two seconds and would have won last year’s individual 200 race. DeRooi has already made a major impact in her first year at Duquesne, being the second seed in the 50 and 100 free, the top seed in the 100 fly, and the fourth seed in the 200 free- although she will have to scratch one of those events to be under the individual event limit.

George Washington, who won the relay last year, finished second with a time of 7:15.90, and Richmond continued to score major points by placing third with a time of 7:16.97. This relay was considerably faster than last year, as George Washington’s 7:23.89 conference winning time from 2021 would only have placed fifth this year.

Diving put George Washington in the lead, as Jamie Doak and Dara Reyblat placed third and seventh in the 1-meter diving competition to give their team 27 points. La Salle’s Phoebe Shaya won the event with 265.60 points.

Team Scores After Day One:

1. George Washington- 104
2. Davidson- 79
3. Richmond- 78
4. Duquesne- 77
5. Massachusetts- 72
6. Fordham- 71
7. St. Bonaventure- 62
8. La Salle- 62
9. Saint Louis- 38
10. George Mason- 30
11. Rhode Island- 30