Maddy Gattrall Wins 4 More Races at Magnus Cup Day 2 for 7 Total So Far

2022 MAGNUS CUP INVITATIONAL

• November 17-19, 2022
• Busbey Natatorium, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio
• Short Course Yards (25 yards), Prelims/Finals
• Day 1 Results
• Day 2 Results
• Full Results on Meet Mobile

It was another day of domination for Maddy Gatrall and the Akron women on day 2 of the 2022 Magnus Cup Invitational. On the men’s side, hosts Cleveland State and Xavier continued to trade blows, but the Musketeers ultimately extended their lead past 100 points.

Women’s Standings After Day 2:

1. Akron – 1072.5
2. Duquesne – 612.5
3. Xavier – 550
4. Toledo – 526
5. Niagara – 309
6. St. Bonaventure – 270
7. Canisius – 187
8. Indiana (PA) – 178
9. Case Western – 136
10. Cleveland State – 130
11. Gannon – 117
12. Fairmont State – 5

Men’s Standings After Day 2:

1. Xavier – 718
2. Cleveland State – 612.5
3. Gannon – 537.5
4. Case Western – 464.4
5. Canisius – 425.5
6. St. Bonaventure – 414
7. Niagara – 405.5
8. Indiana (PA) – 251.5
9. Fairmont State – 99
10. WVU Tech – 46

Women’s Day 2 Recap

After three wins (and a would-have-been win, if it were not for a DQ) on Thursday, Akron junior Maddy Gatrall won four more races on Friday. That was part of a clean sweep of the event titles for the Zips, who have now won all but one women’s event so far at the meet.

The day began with the 200 medley relay, where Akron won in 1:39.20. Gatrall led off in a 24.85 backstroke split, and was joined by Andrea Fischer (27.99), Abby Daniel (23.50), and Rachel Schiffi (22.86). That relay had the fastest split in each leg.

Akron’s dominance was so on display that they actually took the top two spots in the relay, and had the two fastest splits on every leg of the relay except for freestyle.

Gatrall’s first individual win of the night came in the 200 free where she swam 1:49.06. She used a big final 50 yards to run down two swimmers who were ahead of her: Toledo’s Kennedy Lovell (1:49.23) and Xavier’s Kali Fischer (1:49.61). Gatrall was .34 better than Lovell and .69 better than Fischer over just the final 50 yards.

Gatrall won again later in the session in 52.61. That broke the Meet and Pool Records in the event that were set in 2021 by Daisy Platts of Bowling Green State, who would eventually transfer to Auburn.

That time for Gatrall is just-off the 52.46 that it took to qualify for the 2022 NCAA Championships.

Both times for Gatrall are new lifetime bests, and she led a 1-2-3 finish in the 100 backstroke for Akron.

Gatrall finished her day as she began it: by contributing to a winning Akron relay. She split 1:49.94 on the 3rd leg. Combined with Weronicka Gorecka (1:51.00), Abby Daniel (1:53.02), and Gail Workman (1:51.32), Akron swam a 7:25.28 that won the race by over four seconds ahead of Toledo.

Akron’s other three winners on the day were Astrid Halvorsen in the 400 IM in 4:20.97, which is five seconds slower than she was at this meet last year; Abby Daniel in the 100 fly in 53.23; and Andrea Fischer in the 100 breast in 1:02.59.

Rachel Johnson of Division II school IUP was 2nd in the 100 breast in 1:02.97. While that was tied as the team’s best finish on the day, it was not one of two school records that they broke in the session: Thanos Diamantidis was 2nd in the men’s 100 breaststroke in a school record of 54.80, and Paige Miskell was 6th in the 100 fly in a new school record of 53.61.

Men’s Meet Recap

Day 2 of the men’s meet felt very similar to day 1 early on, with Cleveland State opening with another relay win. This time, it came in the 200 medley, where Kennyt Thomas (22.88), Griffin Manning (24.56), Paddy Johnston (21.49) and Nathen Eberhardt (20.30) combined to win in 1:29.23. Xavier was 2nd in 1:29.60, a relay that included the fastest freestyle anchor: a 19.84 from Andrew Martin.

But Xavier began to make hay once the individual races began. Michael Benington completed an IM sweep by winning the 400 IM in 3:56.49 after the relay. Jack Parker (3:57.02) gave the Musketeers a 1-2 finish.

St. Bonaventure picked up their first win of the meet when Alexander Behr won the men’s 100 fly in 47.52. That was a bit of an upset over Johnston of Cleveland State (48.22), given that Johnston entered the meet with a better personal best. Behr, though, registered a seven-tenths improvement in this final to capture the win.

Xavier got another win, this time in record-setting fashion, when Andrew Martin took the men’s 200 free in 1:37.46. That broke his own Meet Record of 1:38.53 from prelims.

Cleveland State got back in the win column in the next race, the 100 breaststroke, where Griffin Manning (54.73) out-touched a school record from IUP’s Thanos Diamantidis (54.80) for the win. But that wasn’t enough to make much of a dent in the scoring gap: where Xavier won, they backed the win with depth. Where Cleveland State won, Xavier was able to fend off any deep cuts to their lead. In this 100 breast, for example, Cleveland State finished 1-9 in the A-final, but Xavier was 3-7-10 to keep pace.

After the loss in the 100 fly, Cleveland State’s Paddy Johnston bounced back to win the 100 back in 48.21. He is the defending Horizon League runner-up in that event. Xavier’s Aiden Neuman was 2nd in 50.07.

The most surprising result of the day came at the end of the session in the 800 free relay. St. Bonaventure got a second win, breaking a Meet Record in the 800 free relay with a 6:41.43. Behr (1:38.29), Nick Nakaya (1:43.26), Max Murray (1:38.67), and Tomas Botero (1:41.21) combined for the win, which broke Simon Fraser’s record of 6:43.22 from 2017.

The win was not a total shock, but the margin, especially to the two leading teams, was. Division III school Case Western was 2nd in 6:45.02, and Xavier was 3rd in 6:45.77 – more than four seconds behind the winning Bonnies. That was in spite of a 1:38.87 leadoff from their star Andrew Martin.