2024 H2ounds Invitational
- November 23-25
- Mangione Aquatic Center — Baltimore, MD
- 25 Yards (SCY)
- Full Results
Final Team Scores
Men
- Loyola — 3975
- Johns Hopkins — 2055
- Howard — 1680
- Navy — 153
- Catholic — 72
Women
- Loyola — 3600.5
- Johns Hopkins — 2082
- Howard — 1745.5
- Catholic — 52
The Loyola Greyhounds swept the 2024 H2ounds Invitational, highlighted by strong performances from Joe Hayburn and Lily Mead, who recently returned from multi-gold medal outings at the 2024 FISU America Games.
Hayburn, a U.S. Olympic Trials qualifier, swept the backstrokes at the invite, taking down two program records in NCAA ‘B’ cut times in the process. He won the 100 backstroke in 46.50, breaking the program record he set last season by three-tenths. The time is faster than the 46.84 that Ben Irwin posted to win the 2024 Patriot League title ahead of Hayburn’s 47.11.
In the 200 backstroke, Hayburn swam 1:42.80, breaking the record of 1:43.40 that his teammate Henry Mueller swam last season. Previously, Hayburn’s best sat at 1:44.01, which ranked him second in school history. He split 49.99/52.81 to better his lifetime best by 1.21 seconds.
Hayburn currently ranks fourth among mid-major swimmers in the 100 backstroke and fifth in the 200.
Mead kicked off her meet by teaming with Avery Stimmel, Haley Robinson, and Charley Tulio to break the Greyhounds’ school record in the 200 medley relay with a 1:39.77, bringing the mark sub-1:40 for the first time after their 1:40.32 outing at the 2024 Patriot League Championships, which was the previous record.
Mead continued breaking records on the second day of the meet, wiping the 100 breaststroke school record that had stood since 2020 off the books with a 1:01.48. A versatile swimmer, Mead opted for the 200 IM/400 IM/200 back lineup at her last conference championships. She didn’t race any of those events at this invite, instead swimming the 100 fly/100 breast/200 breast individually, and exhibitioning the 50 freestyle. Her 53.59 100 fly win wasn’t a program record, but it did break two-time Olympian Phoebe Bacon’s pool record and was .08 seconds from her lifetime best. On the final day of the meet, Mead hit an NCAA ‘B’ cut in the 200 breast, swimming 2:13.02.
Loyola’s male breaststroke contingent also put together an impressive showing. The Greyhounds swept the top five spots in the men’s 100 breast, with freshman Brennan Coyle winning in a lifetime-best 53.53. Coyle’s seen big improvements in the event since joining the Greyhounds; he arrived on campus with a lifetime best of 53.91, which he neared earlier this season with a 54.09 at the Thomas Murphy Invite. Then, he reset his best twice this weekend, swimming 53.81 in prelims before taking another .28 seconds off in finals.
Coyle won two other individual events as well, taking the 200 IM (1:47.77) and 100 freestyle (44.15) in lifetime bests as well. The men’s 100 freestyle ‘A’ final was all Loyola swimmers and Coyle won by .05 seconds ahead of graduate student Caleb Kelly, the school record holder in the 50/100 freestyle.
He moves to third all-time at Loyola and junior Michael Venit improved his now fifth all-time rankings, breaking the 54-second barrier for the first time in prelims with a 53.87.
After taking second in the men’s 100 breaststroke, Michael Gozdan hit a lifetime best 1:57.90 to win the 200 breaststroke, leading a podium sweep for Loyola. He lowered his best from the 1:58.17 he swam last season by .27 seconds, becoming just the third Greyhound swimmer to break 1:58.
Another highlight for the Loyola men came in the 500 freestyle, where senior Alex Plavoukos dropped a lifetime best 4:25.75 to win and move to second all-time in program history.
Division III Johns Hopkins University took second on both the men’s and women’s side of the meet. Matthew Hartshorn was the high-point swimmer for the men’s squad. He earned 91 points, highlighted by winning the men’s 400 IM in a meet-record time of 3:54.92. Hartshorn’s best is a 3:53.37, swum at midseason last year.
Canadian freshman Melissa Er won the women’s 200 freestyle for the Blue Jays swimming a lifetime best 1:51.41 to earn her first D3 NCAA ‘B’ cut and beat the field by .93 seconds. Er’s swim moves her into the top ten for Division III this season and would’ve earned a spot in the 2024 DIII NCAA ‘B’ final.
Zuzu Nwaeze swept the women’s sprint freestyle events and took second in the 100 fly to finish with 104 points at the meet, four off Mead’s 108 that led the women’s meet. Nwaeze won the 50 freestyle in a season-best 23.23, which she lowered to 23.14 leading off the women’s 200 free relay. She was just two-hundredths off her best in the 100 freestyle, swimming a 50.08 for the win. She broke 55 in the 100 butterfly with a 54.99 in prelims, then took second to Mead in the finals with a 55.30.
Chanice Posada also collected an event win for Howard, swimming a 55.30 to lead the field in the women’s 100 backstroke by more than 1.20 seconds.
Other Event Winners:
- Men’s 200 medley relay: Loyola — 1:25.15 (pool record)
- Women’s 500 free: Faith Karr, Loyola — 4:59.93
- Women’s 200 IM: Riley Fried, Loyola — 2:05.29
- Men’s 50 free: Caleb Kelly, Loyola — 19.75 (meet record)
- Women’s 800 free relay: Loyola — 7:31.17 (meet record)
- Men’s 800 free relay: Loyola — 6:38.32
- Men’s 100 fly: Patrick Hayburn, Loyola — 48.12
- Women’s 400 IM: Riley Fried, Loyola — 4:25.00 (meet record)
- Men’s 200 free: Henry Mueller, Loyola — 1:38.43 (meet record)
- Women’s 200 free relay: Loyola — 1:32.83
- Men’s 200 free relay: Loyola — 1:19.52 (pool record)
- Women’s 400 medley relay: Loyola — 3:42.57 (pool record)
- Men’s 400 medley relay: 3:11.88 (pool record)
- Women’s 1650 free: Faither Karr, Loyola — 17:13.77 (meet record)
- Men’s 1650 free: Alex Plavoukos, Loyola — 15:29.84 (meet record)
- Women’s 200 back: Lauren Lane, Loyola — 2:01.97
- Women’s 200 fly: Julia Mason, Loyola — 2:06.17
- Men’s 200 fly: Luke Dwyer, Loyola — 1:46.21 (meet record)
- Women’s 400 free relay: Loyola — 3:24.01 (meet record)
- Men’s 400 free relay: Loyola — 2:55.41 (pool record)
