By Sophie Afdhal, Sports Editor||
This weekend, F&M men and women’s swimming hosted their swimming invitational at home and competed against teams from all over the nation. The three day invitational hosted 11 colleges and universities in the women’s division and 9 in the men’s divsion.
The participating schools included Mount Saint Mary’s College, Washington and Lee University, Steven’s Institute of Technology, Ramapo College of NJ, F&M, Millersville University, Kutztown University, Saint Vincent College, SUNY Oneonta, Widener University, and Montclair State University.
Gathering points through each event, the women were in fifth place with 77 points after the first day. They trailed behind Mount Saint Mary’s College with 130 and Washington and Lee University in second with 126 points. The women opened the event with a 200-yard freestyle relay featuring a team of Jillian Albus, Courtney Collins, Bridget Dromerick, and Taylor Mateja. The team clinched the 5th spot out of 23 teams with a time of 1:40.19. They lost narrowly to Ramapo’s team who secured a time of 1:37.40. In the individual 1650-yard freestyle, Mary Ann Robinson obtained 11th out of 32 swimmers with a time of 18.44.92, while Leeza Rojas got 14th place with a time of 18:49.29.
Moving into day two, the Lady Dips remained in 5th place, increasing their points to 212. Steven’s Institute of Technology maintained a small point margin lead over Washington and Lee University to hold first place. First-year Melissa Mullin performed well, securing second place in the 400-yard individual medley and fifth in the 200-yard breaststroke.
The Lady Dips have performed well thusfar and will finish the three day invitational with finals at 5 p.m. on Sunday.
The men are also competing well this weekend. They completed day one of the invitational in sixth place with 74 points. Stevens Institute of Technology finished day one in first with 164 points. In their opening event, the F&M team competed in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a four person team of Ryan Caffery, David Burton, Dennis Chen, and Matthew Murphy. They placed 8th out of 17 teams with a time of 1:28.83.
The men also performed well in the individual events. Patrick Greaney competed in the 1650-yard freestyle and finished with an impressive time of 16:47.29. Reeves Connolly also placed with a time of 16:47.29.
The men have advanced 8 swimmers to the finals to occur on Sunday night. Most notably is Eric Lang who has advanced to the championship final of the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:00.41.
Regardless of how Sunday night’s final turns out, the men and women’s programs have given a strong performance thus far at this year’s fall invitational.
Senior Sophie Afdhal is the Sports Editor. Her email is safdhal@fandm.edu.