Rutgers Swimming & Diving Hosts Villanova On Senior Day

Courtesy: Rutgers Athletics

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Rutgers women’s swimming & diving team returns to the pool to host Villanova on Monday, Jan. 17 at noon at the Rutgers Aquatics Center in its final home meet of the 2021-22 season.

The Scarlet Knights will honor its nine seniors prior to the start of the meet on the pool deck.

• Attendees at all indoor athletics events at Rutgers must provide proof of full vaccination or proof of a negative Covid-19 PCR test within 72 hours of the event accompanied by a photo ID.
• Face masks continue to be required and must be worn in the Rutgers Aquatics Center during the duration of the event.

• Rutgers was last in the water in early December at the Big Al Open at Princeton where the Scarlet Knights logged some of their best times and scores of the season. The Scarlet Knights captured a new platform record along with six event victories and a pair of NCAA B cuts.
• On the boards, RU swept 1M, 3M and platform. Savana Trueb set a new Rutgers record winning platform and also won the 1M title, while two-time Big Ten Diver of the Week won the 3M crown.
• Three titles belonged to Sofia Chichaikina besting the competition in the 200 free along with the top finish with the 400 and 800 free relays.
• A pair of Rutgers rookies were responsible for some of the fastest times in school history. Sofia Lobova captured a pair of B cuts with the third-fastest time in the RU record book in the 100 fly and 100 free. Tina Celik, meanwhile swam the seventh fastest time ever at RU in the 100 breast and ninth-best time in the Rutgers record book in the 200 breast.

• Abigail Knapton’s six dives against Harvard last time at home totaling a score of 313.13 is currently sixth among conference divers. Additionally, her score of 344.33 against IUPUI back on 3M on Oct. 31 is seventh in the Big Ten.

• Abigail Knapton has won two Big Ten Diver of the Week awards while Sofia Lobova has picked up two Big Ten Freshman Swimmer of the Week honors.
• Lobova picked up her first conference rookie honors after helping the Rutgers 400 free relay team to victory and capturing two times among the Rutgers top ten along with an NCAA B cut at Big Al Invitational in early December.
• Lobova, who swam the second leg of the 400 free relay, aided in the squad’s time of 3:18.50, which was .44 seconds off the school record. The Scarlet Knight and her other three teammates also all logged splits under 50 seconds. The freshman also raced in three A finals – the 50 free, 100 free and 100 fly. In the 100 free, Lobova was the runner-up capturing a time of 49.38 for an NCAA B cut and the third-fastest time in the 100 free in RU history. She was .08 seconds off the lead and .34 seconds off the school record. Lobova also had another NCAA B cut time with the third-fastest swim in the Rutgers record book with a time of 53.31 in the 100 fly. In the 50 free, Lobova took fourth with a personal best time of 22.91.
• Lobova also earned B1G Freshman of the Week honors back on Nov. 17 after a pair of victories in the 50 and 100 free in the Battle for the Cannon Trophy at Princeton.
• Knapton, meanwhile, earned her first weekly honor the week of Oct. 13 scoring 309.53 on 1M and 333.45 on 3M breaking both the previous Crandall Pool benchmarks by 10.95 points in the season-opening victory at Army.
• Knapton earned her second distinction after winning three events on Oct. 29 & 30 on the road at Purdue and IUPUI. In RU’s first Big Ten competition of the year, Knapton won 3M scoring 329.85 and was 1.35 points short of also taking home the 1M title with a runner-up performance of 285.15 In the Scarlet Knights’ win at IUPUI the next day, Knapton won 1M scoring 303.83 and 3M scoring a season-best 344.33, which is also the third-best in Rutgers history and fourth-best score in the Big Ten.
• Knapton is the first Scarlet Knight diver to earn the honor since Addison Walkowiak in 2017.

• Cat Salladin took seventh at the women’s CSCAA Open Water National Championship on Sept. 17. A former member of the USA World Championship Open Water Team, Salladin was one of 70 women’s distance swimmers competing in the 5K course and one of four members of the Big Ten to finish among the top 10.
• The Scarlet Knight completed the course in 1:04.45.70 and was 12.10 off reaching the top five and earning an invite to the USA Swimming 5K Open Water Championships.

• Rutgers women’s swimming and diving has earned 15-straight College Swimming Coaches Association of America Scholar All-American Team Awards.
• The Scarlet Knights boasted a 3.73 GPA last spring marking the 18^th-best GPA among Division I women’s swimming programs and second-best among Big Ten teams.
• Last season, the Scarlet Knights also boasted 17 Big Ten All-Academic honorees.

• Rutgers closes out the dual meet season with a Big Ten road trip. The Scarlet Knights travel to Nebraska to meet the Cornhuskers on Jan. 28-29.

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