VMI at William & Mary
- Jan. 26, 2019
- Men: William & Mary def. VMI 193-66
- Women: William & Mary def. VMI 204-46
- Results
Courtesy: William & Mary Athletics
The William & Mary women’s swimming team was near-perfect on Senior Day against VMI, winning each of the first 13 events before exhibitioning the relay, and compiled a 204-46 win in the final dual meet of the regular season. The Tribe improved to 5-7 overall to finish the dual-meet season, while the Keydets fell to 1-13 overall.
– The winning started in the first event, where the Tribe swept the top four spots in the 200 medley relay. The top team of Anna Kenna (Chantilly, Va.), Ellie Henry (Southern Pines, N.C.), Katie Sell (Fredericksburg, Va.), and Annie Miller (Houston, Texas) combined to swim 1:44.38 for the win.
– Next was the 1,000 free, where junior Norah Hunt (Stuarts Draft, Va.) won the first of her two races on the day in 10:28.28.
– The freshman Henry won the 200 free in 1:53.98, a lifetime-best by 2.36 seconds for the rookie.
– Her classmate Kenna picked up an individual win of her own in the 100 back, timing 57.33 seconds.
– Junior Lauren Freeman (Fairfax Station, Va.) won the 100 breast in 1:06.11, the first of her two wins on the day.
– Next was the 200 fly, where senior Maria Oceguera (New Rochelle, N.Y.) won in 2:02.37, breaking the Tribe’s dual-meet record of 2:03.10 that was set two years ago by Jessie Ustjanauskas ’16.
– In the 50 free, freshman Missy Cundiff (Leesburg, Va.) tied her collegiate and season-best to win in 23.27 seconds, which ties her for seventh all-time among W&M athletes in the event.
– Oceguera was back at it in the 100 free, winning her second event of the meet in 53.22 seconds. That improved her lifetime-best in the event by 0.59 seconds.
– In the 200 back, freshman Sonora Baker (Mechanicsville, Va.) and sophomore Tara Tiernan (West Hartford, Conn.) came into the wall neck-and-neck, with Baker stretching to claim the win by .01, 2:04.14 to 2:04.15.
– Freeman’s second win of the day came in the 200 breast, a 2:23.61 win that gave her a sweep of the stroke.
– Hunt earned her second win next, cruising to a 5:05.98 win in the 500 free. That was the second-fastest in-season 500 of Hunt’s career, less than a second behind her time from the CAA Pod Meet last November.
– The senior Sell won her final dual-meet race of her career in the 100 fly, timing 56.99 to take the victory.
– Finishing out the meet was senior Morgan Smith (Verona, N.J.), who put the exclamation point on the win with a 2:08.96 victory in the 200 IM.
The William & Mary men’s swimming team wrapped up its regular season on Saturday afternoon with a convincing win over VMI, 193-66 on Senior Day. The Tribe improved to 7-4 overall with the win, its sixth-straight season of seven or more wins, while the Keydets fell to 6-6 on the year.
– W&M set the tone early with a fast win in the 200 medley relay of 1:30.12. Junior Colin Demers (Virginia Beach, Va.) led-off, before passing to senior Brooks Peterson (Carrollton, Va.) and junior Jack Doherty (Middletown, Va.). Junior Colin Wright (Williamsburg, Va.) finished the race with a 19.5 anchor leg, a mere hint of what was to come later. The Tribe’s time was the 11th-fastest in school history and the fastest time of the year, just .04 off the pool and dual-meet records.
– After VMI’s Stephen Hopta won the 1,650 free, senior Eric Grimes (Louisville, Ky.) won the 200 free in a season-fast 1:40.80.
– In the 100 back, junior Ian Thompson (Alexandria, Va.) won the first of two races, stopping the clock in 51.04 seconds.
– His classmate Ian Bidwell (Pelham, N.Y.) was the next to claim gold, winning the 100 breast in 56.77 seconds, just 0.1 off of his lifetime-best in the event.
– In the 200 fly, junior Chris Balbo (Short Hills, N.J.), the reigning CAA Swimmer of the Week, won his first of two races on the day in 1:51.31. Sophomore Christopher Pfuhl (Charlotte, N.C.) was second overall in 1:55.90, resetting his lifetime-best by more than three seconds in the process.
– The junior Wright put on a show in the next two events, sweeping the 50 free and the 100 free in record fashion. First, in the 50 free, he swam 20.17 seconds to shatter his own pool and dual meet records of 20.46 set last year on Senior Day. That was the 14th-fastest single race in school history. Then, following the 15-minute halftime break, Wright was even more impressive to take the 100 free in 44.28 seconds. That broke his own two-week-old dual meet record by 0.7 seconds, and broke the pool record set two years by Joe Eiden ’17 by nearly a full second (45.19). Wright’s time is tied for the seventh-fastest single race ever, and is the fastest 100 free in the CAA this season.
– Next came the 200 back, where sophomore Jake Kealy (Wilton, Conn.) claimed the win in 1:51.24. Junior Ben Skopic (Marriottsville, Md.) broke his lifetime-best by more than two seconds, finishing second overall in 1:51.61.
– In the 200 breast, freshman Ian Cobb (Vienna, Va.) won his first race of the season in 2:08.06.
– Balbo won his second race of the day and team-best 22nd of the season in the 500 free, stopping the clock in 4:40.25.
– Thompson’s second win was in the 100 fly, touching the wall in 50.07 seconds.
– Freshman Ryan Bebel (Westfield, N.J.) also picked up his first win of the year, taking the 200 IM in 1:55.64.
– The final race of the day was the 400 free relay, where the Tribe was swimming as an exhibition with the win already locked up. That didn’t stop W&M’s top team from shattering the pool and dual-meet records, finishing in 3:02 flat to beat the mark of 3:02.53 set in the final meet last year. Wright led things off in 44.79, which would’ve broken both records for the individual 100 free if he hadn’t already gone faster an hour earlier, before handing off to Grimes, Thompson, and Doherty in turn. That was the 16th-fastest race in school history.
Next up for William & Mary is the Janis Hape Dowd Carolina Invitational, Feb. 8-10 in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Courtesy: VMI Athletics
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – Freshmen Stephen Hopta and Sophie Svoboda both set school records Saturday as the VMI swimming team traveled to the College of William & Mary. The Tribe defeated the VMI men 193-66 and the women 204-46.
Hopta, a two-time America East Male Swimmer of the Week, broke the freshman and school record in the 1,650 freestyle in 16:27.31. He shattered the old mark of 16:40.89, set by Matt Johnson in 2014. He also placed fifth in the 100-yard butterfly in 54.61. Svoboda finished fourth in the 100-backstroke in 59.34 to break her own school and rat (freshman) records, and took fifth place in the 50-free (25.16) and the 500-free (5:32.22).
The men’s 200-yard medley relay team of Jacob Smilie, Ryan Cooper, Ryan Schmitz and Brady Gannon finished in 1:39.79 to place fifth, while the 400-freestyle team of Gannon, Nick Palmieri, Hopta and Schmitz was third in 3:16.40.
Cooper took third in the 200-breaststroke in 2:16.68 and fourth in the 200-IM in 2:04.02. The Keydets had several fourth-place finishes; including William Soldow in the 100-breast (1:04.21), Gannon in the 50-free (21.96), Palmieri in the 100-free (48.98) and Thomas Muldowney in the 500-free (5:03.82). Anno Kong was fifth in the 100 and 200-back in 54.72 and 1:59.34, respectively. Smilie took fifth in the 200-free in 1:49.98 and Andrew Mills was fifth in the 200-fly in 2:05.31.
Morgan Davis had three fifth-place finishes; in the women’s 100-free (57.33), the 200-fly (2:17.46) and the 100 fly (1:03.94). AnnaMarie Neitte-Garcia finished fourth in the 100-breaststroke in 1:20.19, fourth in the 200-IM in 2:36.10 and fifth in the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:58.61.
Sarah MacDougall completed the 200-yard freestyle in 2:08.06 for fifth place. Carisa Kunkle swam a 2:33.88 in the 200-yard backstroke, and the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Svoboda, MacDougall, Davis and Calle Biles finished third in 3:51.06.
“I was quite happy with our performance today,” said head coach Andrew Bretscher. “We swam strong and kept our composure against a very talented William and Mary squad. We saw a lot of improvement in different events, which is what we want heading into the AEC’s in under three weeks.”
The VMI divers will compete Friday at the Liberty University Diving Invitational, hitting the water at 11 a.m.
