The William & Mary women's swimming team broke the pool record in the opening relay and never looked back Saturday, cruising past Davidson 204-56 to clinch the win on Senior Day. Current photo via Mike Lewis/Ola Vista Photography
WOMEN: The William & Mary women’s swimming team broke the pool record in the opening relay and never looked back Saturday, cruising past Davidson 204-56 to clinch the win on Senior Day. With the victory, the Tribe improved to 11-2, the third-best win total in school history, while the Wildcats fell to 0-8 on the year.
W&M won 12 of the 14 events on the day, and also broke two pool records as well as a dual-meet record. That came in the very first event, the 200 medley relay, where the team of Katie Sell(Fredericksburg, Va.), seniors Annie Valls (Miami, Fla.) and Abby Mack (Wayne, Pa.), and Annie Miller (Houston, Texas) powered to a 1:42.69 win, the ninth-fastest race in school history. That also beat the pool and dual-meet record of 1:43.34 set against Towson in 2015, by a relay quartet that also included Sell and Valls.
The second pool record came in the 400 IM, when junior Morgan Smith (Verona, N.J.) won the race in 4:29.34 to beat the old mark of 4:30.78, set all the way back on Jan. 26, 2007, by Richmond’s Lauren Beaudreau. In between those two races, Tribe winners included freshman Megan Bull (Hillsborough, N.J.), who won both the 1,000 free in 10:18.55, and the 100 free in 52.76 seconds. The senior Mack won the 200 fly in 2:07.30, and her classmate Shannon Harrington (Philadelphia, Pa.) won both the 100 back, in 58.47 seconds, and the 200 breast in 2:22.36.
Junior Maria Oceguera (New Rochelle, N.Y.) won two events of her own, first stopping the clock in the 200 free in 1:55.06, and then coming back with a 5:07.48 win in the 500 free. The junior Miller won her signature event, the 50 free, in 23.82 ahead of her classmate Sell, who then came back in the 100 fly for the win in 57.23 seconds. Finishing off the day was the 400 free relay, where the team of Emma Herold (Kohler, Wisc.), Bull, Tara Tiernan (West Hartford, Conn.), and Sell combined for an easy win in 3:30.15.
Notes
W&M’s 11-2 record is the third-best ever in school history … The 1967-68 and 1968-69 teams both went 12-0 … The Tribe also completed its third-straight undefeated season at home, and hasn’t lost since the 2014-15 season in its home pool … W&M’s seven-match winning streak at home is tied for the second-longest ever, behind only the 48-meet monster that extended from the program’s founding in 1964-65 until December of 1972 … Along with the men’s team, that finished 10-1, this is the first year since 1970-71 that both W&M swim teams won at least 10 meets in the same season.
Up Next
With the regular-season complete, William & Mary begins its preparations for the Colonial Athletic Association Championships, Feb. 14-17 in Christiansburg, Va. Before then, the Tribe will send several athletes to the Virginia Tech Invitational, Feb. 2-4.
MEN: The William & Mary men’s swimming team sent its seniors out in style Saturday, cruising past Davidson 205.5-53.5 and setting nine pool or dual meet records along the way. The Tribe improved to 10-1 on the year and completed its third-straight undefeated record at home (3-0), while the Wildcats fell to 1-5 on the year.
The Tribe won all 14 events on the day, and grabbed at least a share of second in 10 of those events as well as it quickly built an insurmountable lead. It was also a record bonanza for the Green and Gold, who broke five pool records and four dual meet records in the meet. The first of both was the 200 medley relay, where the team Colin Demers (Virginia Beach, Va.), Devin McNulty (Herndon, Va.), Jack Doherty (Middletown, Conn.), and Colin Wright (Williamsburg, Va.) combined for a 1:30.08 that chopped more than a quarter-second off of the old records of 1:30.35 (pool, set by Duke in 2014) and 1:30.36 (dual, set against Davidson two years ago). It was also tied for the seventh-fastest race ever in school history.
The very next race may have been one of the most impressive of the whole day, as junior Carter Kale(Williamsburg, Va.) went out hard and came back even faster to win in 9:23.66. That broke the pool record he set a year ago by more than five seconds, and also reset the dual-meet record by more than 1.5 seconds. It was also the fifth-fastest race in school history, and just one second behind Kale’s lifetime-best in the event. In the 50 free, Wright came back for the win in 20.46 seconds, tying his own pool and dual-meet records set back on Oct. 7 in the season-opener over Johns Hopkins.
In the 400 IM, sophomore Chris Balbo (Short Hills, N.J.) shaved .02 off of his own pool record to win in 3:59.85, his second win of the day also taking the 200 fly in 1:52.34 earlier. The final record performance came in the 400 free relay, where the team of Kyle Neri (Wallingford, Conn.), Ian Thompson (Alexandria, Va.), Wright, and Doherty combined to blitz to a 3:02.53 win, the 15th-fastest race in school history. That broke the pool record of 3:03.50 set by W&M last year on Senior Day, and the dual-meet record of 3:03.45 set earlier this season against ECU.
Rounding out the winners on the day were the senior Neri, who took the 100 free in 46.36 over his teammate Wright, and Doherty, who won the 100 fly in 49.96 seconds. Junior Eric Grimes(Louisville, Ky.) swept the middle-distance events, winning the 200 free in 1:41.69 and the 500 free in 4:41.41, and senior Wyatt Grubb (Mechanicsville, Va.) won the 100 back in 50.43 seconds. The final three wins came from the freshman class, with Jake Kealy (Wilton, Conn.) taking the 200 back in 1:51.02, and McNulty sweeping the breaststroke events in 56.81 for the 100 breast and 2:08.94 for the 200 breast.
Notes
W&M’s 10-1 season record is just the fourth season of 10+ wins in school history … The 1969-70 team went 10-0 and the 1970-71 team was 10-1, before the 1998-99 team went 15-1 … Head coach Matt Crispino ’02 was a freshman on that 1998-99 team … This was the 30th win all-time over Davidson (30-5-1 overall) … This was also the eighth home win in a row for W&M, the third-longest home winning streak in school history … The Tribe hasn’t lost at home since the 2014-15 season … Along with the women’s team going 11-2, this is just the second time ever (along with 1970-71) that both the men and the women have passed 10 wins in the same season.
Up Next
With the regular-season complete, William & Mary begins its preparations for the Colonial Athletic Association Championships, Feb. 14-17 in Christiansburg, Va. Before then, the Tribe will send several athletes to the Virginia Tech Invitational, Feb. 2-4.
