Marshall Women Edge Out James Madison On Senior Day

Marshall vs James Madison (W)

• February 1, 2020
• Huntington, West Virginia
• Results

Courtesy: Marshall Athletics

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — The Marshall University Swimming and Diving team sent its five seniors (Catherine Bendziewicz, Angelica DiMarzio, Jordyn O’Dell, Hannah Robins, Maddie Young) out of the Frederick A. Fitch Natatorium with a huge win over James Madison University on Saturday afternoon with a final score of 127-113.

“Today was a special day for our seniors and this team,” Marshall head coach Ian Walsh said. “This group had a couple of girls I recruited before moving out west back in 2016. To be back at Marshall and the way this team sent these five seniors off was a lot of fun.”

The Herd won the 200 Yard Medley Relay (O’Dell, Bendziewicz, Robins, Darby Coles: 1:41.77), and the 200 Yard Freestyle Relay (Alexis WIlhoit, Regan Raines, Adriana Abruzzino, Heather Sigmon (1:37.95) events.

Freshman Alexis Wilhoit won the 200 Yard Freestyle event (1:52.17).

Freshman Nicole Rueff won the 200 Yard Butterfly (2:03.74).

Junior Darby Coles picked up wins in the 50 Yard Freestyle (23.34) and the 100 Yard Freestyle (50.78) events.

Senior Catherine Bendziewicz won the 200 Yard IM (2:02.83) and placed second in the 100 Yard Freestyle (51.04) events.

Senior Jordyn O’Dell won the 200 Yard Backstroke (2:00.67).

Senior Angelica Di Marzio finished second in the 500 Yard Freestyle (5:04.53).

“We wanted to put ourselves in a position in our last meet to connect some racing in preparation for conference,” said Walsh. “The 200 Medley Relay pool record was broken by over two seconds by O’Dell, Bendziewicz, Robins and Coles. A couple events later Catherine broke her own pool record in the 200 Individual Medley. We also had four lifetime best performances with Lexi (200 Freestyle), Hannah (200 Butterfly), Adriana (200 Freestyle) and Maria (1000 Freestyle).”

Senior diver Maddie Young finished third in the one-meter diving (260.40) and fifth in the three-meter diving (260.10) events. Freshman Lauren Henderson sixth in the one-meter (220.43) and in the three-meter diving (2:25.98) events.

“What a great weekend for this team. Last night we competed with a lot of passion and had several season bests,” Walsh said. “Our divers were phenomenal as we had both Maddie (Young) and Lauren (Henderson) achieved their zone scores. They’ve been getting better each meet this semester and it was fun to see them string together some great lists last night. I’m really proud of our divers.”

Up next for the Herd, it will prepare for the Conference USA Championships swim meets that will take place Feb. 26-Feb. 29 in Atlanta, Ga.

“This was a total team effort and it was great to walk away with the win against a very good JMU program,” Walsh said. “The women are in a great position leading into conference and the staff is excited to see the group perform with some rest behind them.”

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FULL MARSHALL RESULTS

Event 1: 200 Yard Medley Relay
            1^st–Jordyn O’Dell, Catherine Bendziewicz, Hannah Robins, Darby Coles (1:41.77)
            2^nd–Heather Sigmon, Rachel Hughes, Nicole Rueff, Or Tamir (1:47.25)

Event 2: 1000 Yard Freestyle
            3^rd–Cara Martin (10:32.88)
            4^th–Maria McGovern (10:39.42)

Event 3: 200 Yard Freestyle
            1^st–Alexis Wilhoit (1:52.17)
            3^rd–Adriana Abruzzino (1:54.95)
            4^th–Regan Raines (1:55.10)
            5^th–Angelica Di Marzio (x1:55.55)

Event 4: 50 Yard Freestyle
            1^st–Darby Coles (23.34)
            3^rd–Hannah Robins (23.93)
            4^th–Or Tamir (24.23)
            5^th–Jordyn O’Dell (x24.39)

Event 5: 200 Yard IM
            1^st–Catherine Bendziewicz (2:02.83)
            5^th–Rachel Hughes (2:15.99)

Event 6: 1 mtr Diving
            3^rd-Madison Young (260.40)
            6^th–Lauren Henderson (220.43)
            8^th–Sarah McGlumphy (185.79)
            9^TH–Joelle Williams (x182.31)

Event 7: 200 Yard Butterfly
            1^st–Nicole Rueff (2:03.74)
            2^nd–Hannah Robins (2:03.90)

Event 8: 100 Yard Freestyle
            1^st–Darby Coles (50.78)
            2^nd–Catherine Bendziewicz (51.04)
            3^rd–Regan Raines (52.84)
            4^th–Alexis Wilhoit (x53.08)

Event 9: 200 Yard Backstroke
            1^st–Jordyn O’Dell (2:00.67)
            2^nd–Heather Sigmon (2:02.11)
            4^th–Or Tamir (2:07.90)
            6^th–Adriana Abruzzino (x2:10.18)

Event 10: 500 Yard Freestyle
            2^nd–Angelica Di Marzio (5:04.53)
            6^th–Maria McGovern (5:18.26)

Event 11: 3 mtr Diving
            5^th-Madison Young (260.10)
            6^th–Lauren Henderson (225.98)
            8^th–Sarah McGlumphy (203.18)
            9^th–Joelle Williams (x181.81)

Event 12: 100 Yard Breaststroke
            3^rd–Rachel Hughes (1:10.16)

Event 13: 200 Yard Freestyle Relay
            1^st–Alexis Wilhoit, Regan Raines, Adriana Abruzzino, Heather Sigmon (1:37.95)

Courtesy: James Madison Athletics

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — James Madison swim & dive fall to Marshall, 127-113, in the team’s final dual meet of the season on Saturday afternoon.

To start the meet off, Julianna Jones dominated in the 1000 freestyle with a time of 10:09.24 followed by Sidney Whitfield placing second in the event. Jillian Santiago placed second in the 200 freestyle and first in the 500 freestyle. Bonnie Zhang placed second in the 50 freestyle and third in the 200 freestyle.

Mackenzie Lawson took the gold in the 100 breaststroke followed by fellow teammate, Jessica Pierce. The team of Kristie Darmody, MacKenzie Gring, Megan Marsh and Zhang took second in the 200 freestyle relay by less than a second to Marshall.

The James Madison divers dominated across the board, claiming the top-four spots in the 3-meter Emily Gross claimed first in the 1-meter dive and second in the 3-meter dive. Faith Anderson followed Gross in second in the 1-meter dive and took home the gold in the 3-meter dive. Sarah Strim placed third in the 3-meter dive followed by fellow Duke, Hope Bryum.

QUOTING COACH PERSON
“This meet wasn’t all about the win or loss. While we always compete our hardest for JMU and proudly represent our university and program, we also had many other points of emphasis before our conference championship meet. We raced tired for the last time this season. Now it’s time for the championship portion of our season and I can’t wait to see what this team accomplishes.”

UP NEXT
James Madison swim will travel to Blacksburg, Va. for the Virginia Tech Invitational on Feb. 7-9, while the dive team will stay to defend Savage Natatorium in the JMU Diving Invitational on Feb. 8-9.