ArkansasSwimmers representing the University of Arkansas at the Virginia Tech Invite finished their final session of swimming Sunday evening in Blacksburg, Va., at the Christiansburg Aquatic Center. Sophomore Rachel Kessler (New Rochelle, N.Y.) won her second event of the weekend in the 200-yard butterfly with a season-best time. Over the two days of competition, four different Razorbacks swam eight career-best times and three Razorbacks had six season-best times.
“We’re pretty excited about how the team represented Arkansas and the Razorbacks this past Saturday and Sunday,” head coach Sean Schimmel said. “The goal was to go in there and do things they hadn’t done before and that certainly showed up. It was a pretty important piece to start us off with our championship season. Those six women certainly got us headed in the right direction.”
Kessler led the Razorbacks with a win in the 200 butterfly. Her time of 2:03.57 was a season-best, clocking in 1.43 seconds faster than her previous best this season at the Mizzou Invitational. The event win was Kessler’s second of the invitational. Kessler was followed by sophomores Rebekah Harvey (Austin, Texas) and Jordan Kimmey (Flower Mound, Texas), who placed seventh and 10th, respectively.
Senior Molly Milborn (Fishers, Ind.) finished third in the 100 freestyle with a time of 53.38. Senior Lizzy Whitbeck (Oklahoma City, Okla.) followed closely behind, claiming fourth place in 53.82. Her finish was a mere 0.2 seconds off her personal-best time. Sophomore Rebekah Porter (The Woodlands, Texas) finished in sixth place with a time of 54.27.
Whitbeck finished the weekend with a third-place finish in the 200 individual medley and a season-best time of 2:10.29. Porter finished fourth in 2:15.14.
The Razorback swimming and diving team will make its next appearance at the SEC Championships in Athens, Ga., Feb. 18-22.
Johns Hopkins Men
In its final meet of the regular season, the Johns Hopkins men's swim team posted four NCAA provisional times on day two of the Virginia Tech Invitational. Hopkins concludes the regular season with a 7-1 record. Sophomore Michael McGoldrick and freshmen Scott Sterrett, Patrick Flynn and Josh Hughes all posted provisional times on Sunday.
Freshman Mitchell Boyer opened the second day with a fourth-place finish in the 100 Free, clocking in at 49.00. Sterrett than placed second in the 200 Breast with an NCAA provisional time of 2:05.35. Freshman Bryan Pon followed with a third-place finish in 2:07.18. Flynn earned a second-place finish in the 200 Back as he touched the wall in 1:50.66. His time was also an NCAA provisional time. Freshman Kyle Verdeyen finished in second place in the 200 Fly with a time of 1:57.19.
Freshman Connor Johnson then won the 200 IM as he finished in 1:54.66 to beat UNC Wilmington's Matt Byrd by more than two and a half seconds. McGoldrick took third place in the 1650 Free, the final event of the meet, with an NCAA provisional time of 15:58.10. Hughes followed in fourth place, also with a provisional time, as he finished in 16:02.45. Sophomore Billy Gravley claimed sixth place in 16:16.93, just missing a provisional mark by 0.28 seconds.
Hopkins returns to the pool at the 2014 Bluegrass Mountain Conference Championship, scheduled for February 12-15, in Charlotte, NC.
Johns Hopkins Women
Freshman Ariana Waitkavicz posted her second NCAA provisional time of the weekend to highlight the Johns Hopkins women's swim team's performance on day two of the Virginia Tech Invitational. The Blue Jays conclude the regular season with a 6-2 record as they head into the championship portion of their schedule.
Freshman Sarah Westley kicked things off with a win in the B Final of the 100 Free, touching in 54.67. Sophomore Megan Auzenbergs took third place with a time of 55.95. Freshman Helena Arose then placed fifth in the 200 Breast in 2:27.49, while senior Katie Rownd placed eighth in 2:35.06. Waitkavicz grabbed sixth place in the 200 Back in 2:07.81, while her prelim time of 2:05.18 is a provisional time. Freshman Kristen Kaiser followed in seventh place in a time of 2:18.88.
Junior Selena Guerrero-Martin finished in fourth in the B Final of the 200 Fly with a time of 2:17.18. Waitkavicz then placed fifth in the 200 IM in 2:15.93, with Arose grabbing seventh place in 2:19.67. Kaiser and Rownd closed out the day in the 1650 Free with third and fourth place finishes, respectively. Kaiser finished in 17:56.11 and Rownd in 18:29.99, both are career best times.
Hopkins returns to the pool at the 2014 Bluegrass Mountain Conference Championship, scheduled for February 12-15, in Charlotte, NC.
Virginia Tech
The Virginia Tech swimming and diving teams picked up another six wins on the second day of the Virginia Tech Invitational, as the H2Okies wrapped up their final weekend of regular season competition.
For the women, senior Natalie Leake landed the first victory of the day for Tech, taking top honors in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:22.27. Junior Jayme Katis later won her second event of the weekend, clocking a 2:05.08 to pace the 200 IM.
Tech also took three of the top five spots in the 200 backstroke, as sophomore Katie Gillespie (2:02.23), freshman Auriane de Premilhat (2:03.20) and senior Aubree Duncan (2:06.12) finished second, third and fifth, respectively.
On the men’s side, senior Nathan Hoisington earned his second win in as many days. After recording an NCAA “B” standard time in the 100 breaststroke yesterday, the senior clocked a 2:02.79 to win this evening’s 200 breaststroke by almost three seconds.
Junior Kevin Hunt and freshman Adam Stacklin continued their solid weekend by taking the top two spots in the 100 freestyle to start the day, finishing first and second with times of 44.75 and 44.80, respectively.
Freshman Ben Borgert took first in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:47.86, while sophomore Michal Szuba ended the day with a win in the 1650 freestyle, clocking an NCAA “B” standard time of 15:27.42.
Speaking on the trio of seniors that competed this weekend, Head Coach Ned Skinner said, “I would like to thank our three seniors from this meet for their dedicated service to the H2Okies throughout their careers. They are all fine student-athletes and excellent teammates. We wish them the very best in their future pursuits.”
The H2Okies were joined at the meet by women from Arkansas and Harvard, men from VMI, as well as combined squads from UNC Wilmington and Johns Hopkins, though no team scores were tallied. Complete results can be found at the attached link.
The H2Okies will be back in action in two weeks, when Tech travels to the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships on back-to-back weekends. The Women’s ACC Championships will be held on Feb. 19-22, while the Men’s ACC Championships are the following weekend, Feb. 26-Mar. 1. Both events will be in Greensboro, N.C.
