The George Washington men’s swimming team saw multiple season-best performances on the first day of the three-day Patriot Invitational on Thursday at Atlantic 10 newcomer George Mason.
The Colonials are in fourth place with 149 points following the Day 1 of events at the Patriots’ Jim McKay Natatorium in the Aquatics and Fitness Center.
George Washington Men
Sophomore Oliver Keegan earned second place in the 500-yard freestyle with a season-best time of 4:34.35 as he was edged at the wall by .16 seconds. Classmate Jordan Sharples finished fifth with a season-best 4:41.17.
Freshman Bogdan Balteanu clocked in at 1:54.66 for a sixth-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley, and in the 200 free relay, junior Goran Koprivnjak, senior Jake Mortensen, freshman Ben Fitch and Balteanu took home sixth with a time of 1:26.29.
The 400-yard medley relay of Mortensen, junior Garrett Cottingham, Keegan and Koprivnjak finished fifth in 3:27.10 to wrap the evening’s events.
Host George Mason leads the pack with 302 points while UNC-Wilmington (293) follows in a close second. UMBC (224) is in third followed by GW in fourth, Seton Hall (133) in fifth, American (70) in sixth, NCAA Division II Shippensburg (42) in seventh and Howard (14) in eighth.
GW returns to the pool on Friday morning with the preliminary heats of the 400 IM, 100-yard butterfly, 200 free, 100-yard breaststroke and 100-yard backstroke events. Action is slated to open at 10 a.m.
George Washington Women
The George Washington women’s swimming 400-yard medley relay team set a new school record to highlight Day 1 of the Patriot Invitational at nearby Atlantic 10 newcomer George Mason on Thursday.
The 400 medley relay squad of senior Lindsay Moore, juniors Morgan Zebley and Janica Lee and senior Sydney Saunders recorded a new GW record of 3:48.65 to earn top honors in the final event of the evening.
The Colonials set several season-best times on the first day of the three-day event at the Patriots’ Jim McKay Natatorium in the Aquatics and Fitness Center and currently sit in second place with a total of 223 points.
Senior Caroline Myers posted GW’s first top finish of the night when she won the 500-yard freestyle with a season-best time of 4:54.81. Sophomore Madison Reinker followed Myers in a close second place with a season-best time of 4:58.16 and classmate Emma Gaquin took home fifth with a season-best 5:05.34.
Rookie Lauren Law clocked in at 2:05.34 in the 200-yard individual medley for third place and Lee finished fifth in a season-best time of 2:06.78. Law set a new season mark of 2:04.98 – just .32 seconds shy of GW’s all-time record – in the prelims of the 200 IM on Thursday morning.
In the 200 free relay, the team of seniors Sloan Saunders and Melissa Fernandez, sophomore Kally Vanderbilt and Sydney Saunders clocked in at 1:36.71 for a third-place finish, while the squad of Reinker, freshman Carly Whitmer, Lee and Zebley finished seventh in 1:37.94.
Sydney Saunders also earned seventh in the 50 free with a season-best time of 24.06 seconds.
A trio of A-10 squads pace the pack as host George Mason takes the lead into Day 2 with 291 points, followed by GW in second and Richmond (205) in third. Seton Hall (142) is in fourth place followed by UMBC (135) in fifth, UNC-Wilmington (115) in sixth, NCAA Division II Shippensburg (80) in seventh, American (42) in eighth and Howard (4) in ninth.
GW returns to the pool on Friday morning with the preliminary heats of the 400 IM, 100-yard butterfly, 200 free, 100-yard breaststroke and 100-yard backstroke events. Action is slated to open at 10 a.m.
