The Retrievers received eight event wins from freshmen while senior Mohamed Hussein (Cairo, Egypt/Victory College) again won three competitions as the UMBC swimming and diving program swept Rider, Saturday afternoon at Coppola Pool. The Retriever men downed the Broncs, 158-133, while the women’s squad earned a 162-132 victory.
Six different freshmen earned at least one event victory as UMBC opened with victories over Rider for the fifth straight year.
After the Retrievers opened the meet by sweeping the 200 medley relays races, freshman Cassie Jordan (Woodbine, Md./Mount de Sales) got her collegiate dual meet career started with a win in the 1,000-yd freestyle (10:44.03). Classmate Grace Dai (Germantown, Md./Northwest) also earned top honors in a distance event, claiming the 500 free title.
A week after sweeping the breaststroke events in an exhibition meet with Bucknell, rookie Emily Escobedo (New Rochelle, N.Y./Maria Regina) earned wins in the 100-yd. (1:07.21) and 200-yd. (2:22.41) races against the Broncs. Classmate Hannah Sutherland (Kingston, Ontario/Holy Cross Secondary) also picked up two wins in her first dual meet, winning the 100 (1:00.34) and 200-yd. (2:09.96) butterfly competitions.
Junior Klara Pavelkova (Prague, Czech Republic/Gymnasium Pripotocni) rounded out the double winners for the UMBC women, taking the 100 (58.45) and 200 backstroke (2:09.25) events.
For the men, Hussein continued to lead by example for the Retrievers, sweeping each of the events in which he entered. After leading off for the victorious 200 medley relay, the senior earned his first three wins of the year by taking the 50 (21.31) and 200-yd. free (1:54.49) and then the 200 IM (1:54.49).
UMBC also got two wins apiece from senior Johan Rohtla (Tallinn, Estonia/Tallinn Secondary Science), who swept the 100 (52.15) and 200 back (1:53.26), and sophomore Leo Endres (Bamberg, Germany/Kaiser Heinrich Gymnasium), who won the 100 (58.73) and 200 breast (2:10.07) races.
In addition, junior Rob Breen (Danvers, Mass./St. John’s Prep) claimed the 500 free (4:41.37) while freshman Gregor Sporlein (Bamberg, Germany/Clavius-Gymnasium) won the 100 free (46.87) in his first collegiate dual meet.
UMBC now returns to Baltimore to host Navy at the UMBC Aquatic Complex on Friday, Oct. 19 at 4:00 p.m.
