Women’s Divers Lead UMass to Big Day 1 Lead at 2015 A10 Championships

Results from day 1 of the 2015 A10 Championships are in the books with the Richmond Spiders and the University of Massachusetts in the hunt for the women’s conference title.  On the men’s side of the pool with men’s 1 meter not until tomorrow afternoon the St. Bonaventure and University of Massachusetts men wasted no time putting themselves in the driver’s seat for the weekend ahead

2015 Men and Women’s A10 Championships

•    Wednesday February 18- Saturday, February 21
•    Geneva, Ohio – The Spire Institute
•    Prelims/Finals Th-Sat 10:00AM/6:30PM Wednesday 3:00PM/6:30PM
•    Defending Champs: Women-Richmond(4x) Men-St.Bonaventure(2x)
•    Live Results
•    Championship Central

Women’s 200 Medley Relay

Maggie Pope(25.88) Annie Lane(28.17) Kelley Yang (23.67) and Natalya Ares(22.98) combined to lead Richmond to a 200 Medley Relay Championships to open the evening in Geneva. The race was a tight battle between Ford and George Mason for second entering the anchor leg.  Chandler Lulley (23.24)out split Kelsey Sorensen (23.43) to help   Fordham University place second in 1:41.76 while George Mason picked up the bronze with 1:41.96. Duquesne(1:42.18), UMass(1:43.47) Davidson (1:43.56) Rhode Island(1:43.99) and Saint Louis(1:44.08) rounded out the rest of your top eight.

Men’s 200 Medley Relay

St.Bonaventure won the 200 Medley in 1:28.86 just missing their Conference and Meet record of 1:28.74 set last year.  The team of Vatslav Lets (23.02) Preston Schilling (24.64) Michael White (21.21) and Viachslav Shchukin (19.99) led from start to finish helping the Bona Wolves toward their goal of a third straight conference championship. Saint Louis at first glance looked to have tied St.Bonaventure for the title as Billingsley anchored home in 19.46 but a relay reaction time of -.01 by the senior cost the Biliken a moment on the podium. Wiktor Karpinski powered Massachusetts from 5th to 2nd with an impressive 19.58 anchor leg touching the wall at 1:29.72 for the Minutemen. George Mason rounded out the podium with a 1:29.80 and an impressive 20.84 butterfly split for senior Travis Lauri.  Look for Lauri to be eyeing more than just the gold later on this weekend in the 100 Butterfly. Davidson(1:30.40), La Salle (1:30.49) George Washington (1:31.67) and Fordham(1:31.71) took 3rd through 7th in that order finishing up the men’s Medley.

Women 1 meter Diving Finals

After a 5th Place finish in the Medley Relay, the Massachusetts diving team came out on a mission to get their team back in the championship race.  The minute women as we should say swept the diving podium even taking the 4th position from the Richmond Spiders. Emma Roush(268.35), Rachael Dushman(265.75), and Mac Eckhardt(255.10) went 1st 2nd and 3rd with Rhiannon Froman diving her way to 4th. Irina Chiulli and Laura Rokop placed 5th and 7th respectively for Richmond with Paige Frishkorn of La Salle taking 8th.

Women’s 800 Freestyle Relay

After a rather quiet first half of the session the Davidson quartet of Elise Lankiewicz(1:47.95), Meredith Nakano(1:49.73), Anna Blair Bullock(1:49.95), and Angie Healy(1:49.18) combined to break the A-10 championship meet, conference and Spire pool record with 7:16.81.  Lankiewicz’s lead-off leg also dipped under Chaya Zabludoff’s conference and meet record set at last year’s championships. Duquesne came in a distant second at 7:22.34 with Richmond not far behind for third at 7:23.76. Massachusetts (7:25.40), La Salle (7:26.14), Fordham (7:27.83), St.Bonaventure (7:28.67),  and George Mason (7:31.95) rounds out the top 8.  Former conference and meet record holder Chaya Zabludoff led from the 9th place Rhode Island relay in 1:49.61.  Even with Zabludoff a little off her best this evening, I have a feeling we will have a race on our hands come Friday night.

Men’s 800 Freestyle Relay

Massachusetts tied things up with St. Bonaventure as Alendro Bomprezzi ran down Ripley Danner for the 800 freestyle relay title.  Owen Wright(1:38.37), Brian Stiles(1:39.80), Oliver Wyeth( 1:37.37) and Bomprezzi(1:36.32) finished at 6:31.86, only couple seconds off of the A-10 record from last year.  St.Bonaventure fell to second touching the wall at 6:33.55 with Saint Louis University picking up the bronze with a valiant effort posting a 6:35.37. George Mason(6:38.28), George Washington(6:38.76), Davidson(6:39.23), Fordham(6:43.86), and La Salle(6:44.75) while not on the podium scored much needed points for their respective universities moving forward towards day 2.  After reviewing relay splits from the 800 freestyle relay tonight, it seems that there could be a lot of movement from the 200 free and 500 free

Men’s Scores

1. St Bonaventure University          74        1. University of Massachusetts        74
2. George Mason University            62       4. Davidson College                   56
3. George Washington University       54   6. La Salle University                50
4. Fordham University                 48            8. Saint Louis University             32

Women’s Scores

1. University of Massachusetts       139   2. University of Richmond            101
2. La Salle University                78             4. Davidson College                   69
3. Duquesne University                64        6. Fordham University                 60
4. George Mason University            54    8. Saint Louis University             44
5. University of Rhode Island         42     10. St Bonaventure University          38
6. George Washington University       14