SU women's swimming team defeats York and Goucher in tri-meet, men defeat Gophers

The Salisbury University women's swimming team won nine of the 11 events on Saturday afternoon in a tri-meet sweep of York (Pa.) College and Goucher College at the Grumbacher Sports and Fitness Center on York's campus. The women's team defeated Capital Athletic Conference foe York, 124-79, and Goucher, 149-54. The men's team split the meet with a decisive win against Goucher, 130-71, but fell to York, 147-56.

The women improve to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in conference with the two victories. The Sea Gulls took first place in both relay events. The team of juniors Angie Hammond and Jessica Krauss and freshmen Jenna Petrella and Robin Stone edged the Spartans in the 200-yard medley relay by a full second with a time of 1:58.81. The women had a similar result in the 200-yard freestyle relay as the team of Hammond, seniors Laura Kordzikowski, Raienne South and sophomore Katy Turner touched home a second ahead of York with a time of 1:44.94.

The women also won seven of the nine individual events. Freshman Katie Fitzenreiter set the tone early for the Sea Gulls as she blew away the field in the 1,000-yard freestyle, the third event of the meet, as she finished 16.43 seconds better than anyone else with a time of 11:22.89. Fitzenreiter was also five seconds better than the field in the shorter 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:34.55. South took home first-place in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:04.08 and Turner was right behind her for the second-place finish (2:05.46). South also finished first in the 100-yard freestyle as she hit the wall in 57.29 seconds and Turner won the 100-yard butterfly (1:01.56). Stone turned in a strong individual performance as well as she won the 100-yard backstroke (1:04.58) and took second place in the 200-yard individual medley with a total time of 2:22.59. Freshman Kelly Closs rounded out the first-place finishes for the Gulls with a time of 1:13.36 in the 100-yard breaststroke.

The men notched two first-place finishes on the afternoon. Senior Brad Buckley was the first one to touch the wall in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 23.05 seconds. Fellow senior Ian Branigan swam a good race for the third-place finish (23.79). Junior Mike Ferrari captured the other first-place finish for SU. Ferrari edged out Steve Tobin from York by 17 tenths of a second to win the 100-yard breaststroke (1:03.40). He also took third in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:13.70.

The Sea Gull men received some strong swims from several other teammates as well. Sophomores Drew Robichaud and Mike Radloff finished second and third in the 1,000-yard freestyle with times of 10:55.49 and 10:59.78, respectively. Senior Jamie Overholt grabbed second place in the 200-yard freestyle (1:51.35) and took third in the 100-yard freestyle (51.20). Sophomore Tim Metcalf snagged a third-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly with a final time of 58.57. In the relays, the team of Branigan, freshmen Steve Eyler, Jason Preston and sophomore Chris Smith finished third in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:33.62.

The Maroon and Gold have concluded the first half of the season as the teams will be off until after the holiday break. The teams will reconvene on January 10 for a conference meet on the road against Hood College at 2 p.m.