Swimcloud

Condensed Appalachian Meet Continues

By Mark Dziak

The swimmers in the Appalachian Swimming Conference continued their condensed swim meet as the teams took to the water Saturday morning for the second session of events. The women's side of the meet would change leads several times throughout the session with Notre Dame College, Wheeling Jesuit University, and Brenau University all taking leads at various points of the session. There is a little less variability with the men's meet as Wheeling Jesuit would continue to stay on top throughout this morning's session.

The 200 Medley Relays kicked things off with repeat winner's of last night's 400 Medley Relays. The Brenau Golden Tigers' tandem of Talia Solia, Mary Katherine Jabbia, Michelle Billeaud, and Sophie Nasstrom swam to a time of 1:47.41, breaking the previous meet record of 1:50.14. Coming in second was Wheeling Jesuit (1:49.93) and in third was Notre Dame (1:52.26). On the men's side of the event, Mars Hill would go on to win this event for the fourth year in a row. The quartet of Hudson Tucker, Mladen Senicar, Sal Russon, and Drew Rosser took the event in 1:33.34. Following close on their heals were the Knights of Saint Andrews in 1:33.72. Rounding out the top-three were the Blue Knights of Urbana in 1:35.98.

The first individual event of the morning saw swimmers diving in for the "decathlon of swimming," the 400 IM. The women's top three finishers would feature one swimmer from each of the three schools looking to take home the conference title. Courtney Hayward of Brenau would claim top honors with a time of 4:36.23. Followed behind Hayward were Alexis Anderson of Wheeling Jesuit in 4:47.23 and Chelsea Law of Notre Dame College in 4:48.10. The men's 400 IM would see two Cardinals take the top positions. Kuba Skrzypczak would follow-up his win in the 200 IM last night with a dominant swim and new meet record and NCAA Division II "B" cut of 4:01.90. Skrzypczak's teammate, Henrique Fructuozo, the two-time defending champion would place second in 4:10.98. Jose Morales of Union College would place third in 4:12.97.

There must be something in the water at Urbana University that is conducive to swimming Butterfly as they would top the podium in both the women's and men's 100 Butterfly. Freshman Jennifer Schwartz would race to victory in 58.52. She was followed by Michelle Billeaud of Brenau in 58.75 and 2013 champion Alexis Anderson in 59.27. Kim Helander would once again prove dominant in this event as he cruised to a time of 49.64. The junior out of Sweden has won this event the past two years and will go for a clean sweep in 2015. Following behind Helander were a pair of Lions from Mars Hill; Hudson Tucker took second in 50.19 and Sal Russo touched third in 52.21

The 200 Freestyle would see a return from a familiar face in the conference. Callie Harrigan of Union was absent from last year's meet but would return to take top honors in the 200 Freestyle. Harrigan touched first in 1:56.08 followed by Aerika Wieser of Urbana in 1:57.35 and Shelby Rumker of Brenau in 1:58.20. The men's side of the event saw Alexander Espinosa of Urbana move up from last year's third-place finish to capture the 2014 title in 1:42.72. Matheus Montarroyos of WVU-Tech would follow last night's victory in the 500 by placing second in 1:43.15. Third place saw another newcomer as Teo Boscaino of Saint Andrews swam to a time of 1:43.91.

The 100 Breaststroke would see more familiar names in the conference. Brenau and Wheeling Jesuit would continue to do battle as Mary Katherine Jabbia (last year's third-place finisher) would capture the 2014 title for the Golden Tigers in 1:06.62. Following close behind Jabbia was Meghan Ebbert of Wheeling Jesuit (the 2013 champion) in 1:06.97.Third place belonged to freshman Jule Stein of Union College in 1:08.45. Drew Rosser of Mars Hill would move up from last year's third-place finish to take this year's title in 57.30. Rosser's teammate Ludo Corsini would make it a 1-2 finish for the Lions in 58.36. Jandre Strauss of WJU and the defending champion would touch third in 58.82.

The 100 Backstroke would again feature Brenau, Notre Dame, and Wheeling Jesuit on the top three for the women. Freshman Talia Solia of Brenau would win going away in 55.88. Sarah Reichman (the 2012 champion) of Notre Dame touched second in 58.69 and Paige Carpenetti of Wheeling Jesuit touched third in 58.86. All three women would under the previous meet record of 58.91. On the men's side, it would take a meet record to win the event. Both Georgi Krastev of Saint Andrews and Hudson Tucker of Mars Hill (the three time defending champion) would both swim under the previous meet record of 49.51. Krastev would use a second-fifty split of 25.06 to win in 48.92 with Tucker touching in 49.22. Another Mars Hill Lion would place third as Sal Russo swam to a time of 52.25.

Saturday morning's session would conclude with the 800 Freestyle Relays. Brenau University would go to win their third relay of the weekend as the quartet of Courtney Hayward, Mary Katherine Jabbia, Michelle Billeaud, and Shelby Rumker would cruise to a time of 7:54.19. The Cardinals of Wheeling Jesuit came in second in 8:02.33 and the Bulldogs of Union College would come in third in 8:09.27. The Wheeling Jesuit men would capture the men's relay as the foursome of Kuba Skrzypczak, Joshua Remaniak, Henrique Fructuozo, and Jandre Strauss would swim to a time of 7:00.88. The Saint Andrews Knights would place second in 7:03.47 and Union would place third in 7:04.23

As the swimmers rest and prepare for tonight's third and final session, the lingering question is who will win the women's team. Wheeling Jesuit sits in first with 360 points followed by Brenau with 358 and Notre Dame with 342. With only 18 points separating the top three women's teams, the title is any team's to win. Notre Dame is the defending champ and looking to retain the title. Wheeling Jesuit would like to regain the title that they lost by four points last year. Brenau would like to take home their first team title. Whoever comes in first, it should be a great session of racing tonight. On the men's side, Wheeling Jesuit has 387 points followed by second place Mars Hill (331 points) and Urbana (295 points).

The standings after Saturday morning's session

Women
Wheeling Jesuit University 360
Brenau University 358
Notre Dame College 342
Union College 231
King University 192
Asbury University 185
Urbana University 173
Mars Hill University 157
Alderson Broaddus University 141
Milligan College 107
Saint Andrews University 63
Warren Wilson College 57
West Virginia University Tech 2

Men
Wheeling Jesuit University 387
Mars Hill College 331
Urbana University 295
Saint Andrews University 290.5
Union College 253
Asbury University 169
West Virginia University Institute of Technology 128
Alderson Broaddus University 126
Milligan College 101
King University 97.5
Notre Dame College 79
Warren Wilson College 59

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