Army Splits With UConn

The Army swimming & diving team split a dual meet with visiting Connecticut this afternoon. The Black Knight men won a 160-14 decision, while it was the Huskie women taking a 204-94 result at Crandall Pool.
 
For Army, sophomore Cody Reeb and sophomore Brody Blickle each won a pair of individual events, while freshman Alyssa Tran won three individual events to spearhead the women.
 
“I’m very proud of the adversity our teams overcame today,” said Army head coach Mickey Wender. “We fought through some illness and injury to put together one of the best dual meet performances I’ve been a part of at West Point. Our guys in particular came together like I hadn’t seen this season and showed a lot of heart, character and toughness to overcome a slow start and beat UConn for the first time since I’ve been here. Alyssa Tran is also as good a freshman as I’ve seen. The best is yet to come.”
 
Reeb swept the two distance events for the second-straight meet, touching the wall first in the 1,000 freestyle (9:45.89) before notching a winning swim (4:41.16) in the 500 free. Blickle’s day included leading a 1-2-3 Army sweep in the 200 butterfly (50.06), a win in the 200 individual medley (1:53.98), and a runner-up showing in the 100 backstroke (52.48).
 
Freshman Bill McCarty notched a first-place finish in the 200 free (1:43.95), before joining senior captain Chuck Ciliske, sophomore Byron Plapp and freshman Dan Foky to clinched the meet with a win in the 400 free relay (3:08.34).
 
Senior James McLaughlin swam the day’s fastest time in the 100 breaststroke (57.57) while also taking second in the 200 breast (2:08.03). Sophomore Chuck Zhou placed first in the 200 backstroke (1:52.46), while adding a pair of third-place efforts in the 500 free (4:45.33) and the 100 back (52.56).
 
Foky finished second in the 100 free (46.77) as well as the 50 free (21.41), hitting the wall only .03 ahead of junior teammate Brendan Murphy (21.44) in third place, while Plapp finished second in the 200 free (1:44.61).
 
Sophomore Mark Courey (52.01) and freshman Alex Ford (52.59) finished second and third, respectively, behind Blickle in the 100 fly, while sophomore Taylor Whitten (1:57.19) and Ford (1:57.93) finished second and third in the 200 fly.
 
Junior Matt Leegan’s day included third-place efforts in the 100 breast (1:00.10) and the 200 breast (2:13.35)
 
For the women, Tran set a plebe record in winning the 50 free (23.73), eclipsing the mark set by sophomore teammate Page Brink at the Patriot League Championships by .13 seconds. Tran also registered first-place showings in the 100 free (52.63) and the 100 fly (56.26) while swimming a leg on the runner-up 200 medley relay.
 
Senior Lindsey Adao swept both diving events, winning the 1-meter competition with a 249.38 as well as the 3-meter event with a 245.39 effort.
 
Junior Corri Payne’s afternoon included a second place in the 200 free (1:56.24) and third in the 100 free (54.65), while freshman Juliana Lynch was second in the 200 back (2:12.62) and third in the 100 back (1:01.99).
 
Freshman Becky Malone notched a second-place swim in the 200 IM (2:17.40), while classmate Christina Esachina was third in the 100 breast (1:08.58).
 
Army will be back in the water on Wednesday, taking on Patriot League rival Holy Cross in a dual meet set to start at 4:00 p.m. in Worcester, Mass.