Loyola Sweeps Hopkins, VMI, St. Francis

Loyola's swimming and diving teams posted another strong all-around performance and recorded a sweep of its opponents on both the men's and women's sides for the second week in a row on Saturday at the 9th-Annual Thomas Murphy Invitational.

The Greyhound men defeated Johns Hopkins, 246-112, and Virginia Military Institute, 304-51, while the women topped Johns Hopkins, 216-148, St. Francis (Pa.), 266-98, and Vriginia Military Institute, 315-20.

The meet, which is held in memory of Tom Murphy, the former Loyola swimming coach and assistant director of athletics. The Thomas Murphy Scholarship was presented during Saturday's session to Loyola's Lindsay Comodore for her dedication and leadership to the team.

"Linsday is a very deserving winner of the Thomas Murphy Scholarship Award," Loyola Head Coach Brian Loeffler said. " `Murph' would have been happy to have such a great person and leader on his team."

In the pool, the Greyhounds followed an excellent opening session on Friday night with a terrific performance on Saturday.

"We are continuing to swim and dive at very high levels," Loeffler said. "I was very happy for our teams to do so well against very tough competition. The final scores do not really reflect how competitive the individual races were."

Loyola's divers swept all of the top spots in the men's and women's 1- and 3-meter diving events. Ciara Huey-Burns scored 214.12 points, the fifth-highest total in Loyola history to win the women's 3-meter event. Candace Rooney was second in 178.65.

Ben DiFranco won the men's 3-meter event, and Benjamin Schwartz was second.

"I was impressed to see how our divers competed this weekend," Loeffler said. "We needed all the points we could get to win the meet, and they provided a clean sweep on the boards. Ciara earned a top five score on 3-meter and Candace was just off on the 1-meter board. Our diving squad will be a force, too."

The Johns Hopkins men's swim team defeated VMI 270-59, but fell to host Loyola 246-112 at the Thomas Murphy Invitational over the weekend. The Blue Jays (2-3) lost to the Greyhounds for the first time since Feb. 12, 1969, snapping a streak of 11 consecutive wins.

Hopkins opened with a third place finish in the 400 Medley Relay with a time of 3:41.84. Senior Colin Kleinguetl (Kingwood, TX/Kingwood) then placed third in the 500 Free (4:48.96), followed by freshman Markus Kowalsky (St. Louis Park, MN/International School of Minnesota) in fourth (4:54.07) and freshman Jonathan Gordon (Potomac, MD/Richard Montgomery) in fifth (4:54.81). Freshmen Stephen Niemiec (Rochester Hills, MI/Rochester Adams) and Tim Nam (Forest Hills, NY/Bronx High School of Science) went three-four in the 200 IM.

In the 50 Free, the Blue Jays took fourth through seventh, led by junior Teddy Bulakul's (Bangkok, Thailand/Hotchkiss) fourth place finish in 21.75, a career-best time. Hopkins wrapped up action on Friday with a second place finish in the 800 Free Relay in a time of 7:09.76. Swimming the relay were sophomore Alex Hsieh (Beijing, China/International School of Beijing), Kleinguetl, junior John Thomas (Montrose, CO/Montrose) and Niemiec.

On Saturday, the Blue Jays took second in the 200 Free Relay to start things off. Junior Chris Whelan (Haddonfield, NJ/Delbarton School), freshman Eddy Zandee (Kailua, HI/Punahou), Bulakul and Thomas swam the relay. The team's time of 1:25.63 is a season-best. Kleinguetl then took third in the 400 IM (4:16.56), followed by Niemiec in fourth (4:18.13). Sershon placed second in the 100 Fly in a time of 52.28, followed by a second place finish for Thomas in the 200 Free (1:45.57). The time was a career-best, surpassing his previous career-best of 1:47.01.
 

 
    

Freshman Preston Youngdahl (Wayzata, MN/Minnetonka) followed with a second place finish of his own, in the 100 Back in 55.65 - a season-best. Nam picked up Hopkins first win of the weekend, taking first in the 100 Breast in a season-best time of 59.32. Sophomore Chris Razavi (Fairport, NY/Fairport) took third in 1:02.94.

In the 1650 Free, Kleinguetl led a trio of Blue Jays that finished in third, fourth and fifth with a time of 16:54.21. Hopkins followed with second and third place finishes in the 200 Medley Relay in 1:36.77 and 1:40.66, respectively. Finishing second were Hsieh, Nam, Sershon and Zandee. Youngdahl, freshman Nicolas Gimenez (Lansdale, PA/Lansdale), junior Spiros Moisiades (Greenwich, CT/Greenwich) and Bulakul took third.

Thomas won the Blue Jays second event, taking the 200 Back in 1:55.55. Nam then won his second event of the day, winning the 200 Breast in 2:11.68. Kleinguetl followed with a second place finish in the 200 Fly (1:56.79) before the Blue Jays took second in the 400 Free Relay to wrap up the meet. Hsieh, Bulakul, Thomas and freshman Dan Raynard (Glenview, IL/Loyola Academy) swam a time of 3:13.90.

Hopkins returns to action at the Nike Cup Invitational hosted by Kenyon College, December 4-6.