Defending A-10 Men’s Champions St. Bonaventure remains in the lead after day three, while the Massachusetts women hold a narrow lead heading into the final day of competition at the 2015 Atlantic 10 Swimming and Diving Championships.
The Bonnies extended their day two lead following sophomores Matthew Goettler and Preston Schilling’s performances in the 100-yd breaststroke in which they took home the gold and silver medals. Both Goettler and Schilling recorded NCAA “B” Qualifying times in the event with times of 54.85 and 54.93, respectively. Also leading the way for St. Bonaventure, was junior Michael Pilyugin. Pilyugin set a new A-10 record in prelims (47.27 in the 100-yd backstroke) before capturing gold in the 100-yd backstroke finals (47.30).
St. Bonaventure’s 400-yd medley relay team consisting of Pilyugin, Goettler, Michael White and Viachslav Shchukin also established a new A-10 record with a time of 3:12.90.
The Massachusetts Minutemen find themselves currently in second place, 45.5 points out of first. UMass was led by junior Alessandro Bomprezzi, who finished second in the 200-yd freestyle with a time of 1:37.56.
George Mason’s Travis Lauri broke the A-10 record, established earlier that morning by La Salle’s Cameron Fadley, in the 100-yd butterfly with an NCAA “B” Qualifying time of 47.86 en route to a first place finish in the event.
After day three of competition, standings on the men’s side are as follows: St. Bonaventure (412), Massachusetts (366.5), George Mason (350), La Salle (289.5), Saint Louis (271), Davidson (231), George Washington (201.5) and Fordham (187.5).
The Minutewomen, who currently have 411 points, were led by a strong team performance in the 3-meter dive in which four UMass divers placed in the top five of the event. Freshman Emma Roush finished in second with a score of 287.20.
The Spiders of Richmond (409 points) find themselves two points behind heading into Saturday, but were able to cut into the UMass lead thanks to a strong performance from junior Kelley Yang, who broke her own 2013 record in the 100-yd butterfly and recorded an NCAA “B” time of 53.65. Richmond freshman Annie Lane also placed first in the 100-yd breaststroke (1:02.61) and second in the 200-yd freestyle (1:49.39). Freshman diver Irina Chiulli scored 314 points in the women’s 3-meter dive to capture gold for Richmond, the school’s first diving gold as a member of the Atlantic 10.
Following UMass and Richmond in the standings are Duquesne (333), Fordham (296), Davidson (286), George Mason (268), La Salle (215), Saint Louis (158), Rhode Island (111), St. Bonaventure (92) and George Washington (67).
George Washington
The George Washington men's and women's swimming and diving teams finished day three of the Atlantic 10 Championships in record-setting fashion as the men's team set a new program record in the 400-yard medley relay in Friday's final event at the SPIRE Institute.
The women remain in 11th place and the men sit in seventh through 27 events of the four-day meet. The Massachusetts women finished the day in first, while St. Bonaventure is atop the men's competition.
Nine GW swimmers advanced to the evening finals after a strong showing in the morning preliminaries. Seven Colonials earned spots in championship heats, while two student-athletes competed in the consolation finals.
The evening's highlight came during the final event of the day as seniors Goran Koprivnjak and Adam Rabe, sophomore Ben Fitch and freshman Gustav Hokfelt set a new program record in the men's 400-yard medley relay with a time of 3:18.86, besting the 3:19.45 mark set last season.
On the men's side, Koprivnjak finished seventh overall in the 400-yard individual medley with a new personal-best time of 3:58.60. Fitch took sixth in the 100-yard butterfly with a personal record-setting time of 49.09 in the championship heat, just shy of the program record of 49.00. Junior Oliver Keegan posted a time of 50.17 in that same event to finish fourth in the consolation final, good for 12th overall.
Rabe and Hokfelt each took fifth overall in the 100-yard breaststroke (54.98) and 100-yard backstroke (49.24), respectively, each a new personal-best.
Freshman Adam Drury and sophomore Liam Huffman advanced to the evening session in the 200-yard freestyle, with Drury claiming fifth after touching the wall in 1:39.14, while Huffman finished in 1:40.33 in the 'B' final, good for 13th place overall. Drury's time was the fastest of his career in the event.
On the women's side, sophomore Carly Whitmer and junior Lauren Steagall each finished eighth in the championship finals of their respective events. Whitmer finished the 100-fly with a time of 55.95, while Steagall completed the 100-breast in 1:05.28.
Richmond
Sophomore Irina Chiulli (Westwood, Massachusetts) won Richmond’s first gold in diving since joining the A-10 in 2001 by taking the women’s 3m springboard with a school-record score of 314.60 as the Spiders cut the gap to just two points for the lead after day three of the Atlantic 10 Swimming and Diving Championships at the SPIRE Institute Friday.
There are just one more day and seven more events remaining in the Championship, which conclude Saturday night in Geneva, Ohio. Richmond trailed by 27 points entering the day after trailing by 38 the day before as Spider swimmers moved up from their seeds entering the events of the day.
“Kelley (Yang) said it best on the bus last night when she said, ‘We can think about everybody else and try to beat everybody else, but we need to make sure we think about ourselves not beat ourselves.’ And my message to them last night on the bus was that the only people we need to care about right now are on this bus,” said Richmond head coach Matt Barany. “We told them to move up from their seed and that’s what we did today. We had opportunities and the swimmers and divers took advantage of those opportunities.”
Junior Kelley Yang (Ellicott City, Maryland) won her second medal of the week and Richmond’s first of the night when she broke her own A-10 Championship meet record with a career-best time of 53.65 to win gold. The Spiders took the lead in the meet at that point.
In the very next event, the 200 Free, freshman Annie Lane won her first individual A-10 medal when she took second in the event that marked the halfway point of the meet. Her time of 1:49.39 earned her a silver medal.
Lane followed that 10 minutes later with her first individual gold of the A-10 meet with a time of 1:02.61 in the 100 Breast to push the UR lead out to 35 points. Lane was one of three freshmen to win a gold medal, the first won by freshmen in individual events at the meet this week.
Championships leader Massachusetts placed five divers in the 3m final to retake the lead, but the Spiders closed the gap back to two points after taking the silver in the 400 IM relay to conclude the night. The foursome of Yang, Lane, Maggie Pope (Nashville, Tennessee) and Natalya Ares (Potomac, Maryland) took home Richmond’s second silver in the relays. The Spiders have claimed medals (one gold, two silvers and a bronze) in all four relays contested to this point.
Before the last relay, the women’s 3m diving finals were contested. Chiulli was fourth after the preliminary round.
“I was excited to see Irina move up in finals and get the win,” said head diving coach Sean Letsinger. “Going into the finals, I talked to her about blocking out everything in the room and to be aggressive on the starts and I was happy to see her do that. UMass is a tough diving team to face. I knew if she could hit her backs and reverses, she would make them work and that’s what she did.”
Freshman Hannah Verrette (Marblehead, Massachusetts) landed a fourth-place finish in the first final of the night, the 400 IM. Pope also finished fourth, in the 100 Back, where the top four finishers were separated by just 0.12 seconds.
The preliminary rounds will be contested Saturday morning, starting at 10 a.m. The finals will take place starting at 6:30 p.m.
