Marist Men
The Marist men’s swimming and diving team sits in third place with 124 points after the first day of the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships. Binghamton (157 points) and Navy (224 points) are the only schools ahead of the Red Foxes.
The Red Foxes’ 200-yard freestyle relay team of sophomore Ryan Murphy (New Fairfield, Conn.), senior Bill Drennen (Collegeville, Pa.), senior captain Spencer Kelley (Weston, Conn.), and senior John Spitzer (Fairport, N.Y.) kicked off the evening session finishing fifth. The squad clocked in at 1:23.11, a time 0.7 seconds faster than in its preliminary qualifier. Spitzer was also a member of the seventh place 400-yard medley relay team.
Individually, Murphy swam the 500-yard freestyle in 4:25.80 to place fourth. Spitzer had a top-10 finish in the 50-yard event with a time of 21.04 seconds.
In the 3-meter dive, senior Jacob Baker (Shavertown, Pa.) led Marist with a fourth place finish and a score of 288.15 points. Junior Josh Dodway (Niskayuna, N.Y.) followed in fifth place (278.45 points), while freshman Peter Gallino (Watertown, Conn.) finished eighth (246.30 points).
Marist Women
The Marist women’s swimming and diving team ranks fifth out of 18 schools after the first day of the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships. The Red Foxes sit 25 points behind fourth place Army, while Penn (152 points) and Navy (152.5 points) are neck and neck. Host Pittsburgh is in first with 214 points.
Junior Renata Diotalevi (Madison, Conn.) led the Red Foxes on the 1-meter board, finishing fourth after racking up a score of 246.75 points. Freshman Megan Berardelli (Ambler, Pa.) and senior Kimberly Tobias (San Jose, Calif.) came in fifth and sixth, respectively.
In the first event of the meet, Marist’s 200-yard freestyle team of freshman Georgia Goldman (Douglaston, N.Y.), sophomore Colleen Lampe (East Setauket, N.Y.), junior Bridget Curley (Endwell, N.Y.), and sophomore Meredith Wurtz (Lafayette Hill, Pa.) clocked in at 1:37.18 for fifth place. Junior Bethany Powhida (Delmar, N.Y.) was the top individual finisher, coming in seventh in the 500-yard freestyle (5:00.85). Freshman Karly Haraden (Ballston Spa, N.Y.) posted a time of 5:00.22 in the consolation final.
UMBC
The winning ways continue for UMBC in the postseason. Freshman Nikola Trajkovic (Zrenjanin, Serbia/Zrenjaninska Gimnazjia) won the 200 IM on Friday. Nikola was the lone UMBC competitor on the day.
Nikola swam the sixth fastest time in the prelims, at 1:50.69. He improved greatly on that mark, swimming a 1:48.14, just edging out Binghamton's Ruan Zorgman.
Tomorrow, the Retrievers will compete in the 100 fly (men and women), 100 breast (men and women), and women's 100 back.
New Hampshire
Freshman Liza Baykova (Moscow, Russia) of the University of New Hampshire women's swimming & diving team headlined the squad after the opening day of the ECAC Championships, hosted by the University of Pittsburgh at Trees Pool on Friday.
The America East's Most Outstanding Rookie dazzled in her ECAC Championship debut, leading the field in the 50-yard freestyle. After a seventh place preliminary time of 23.58 seconds, she stunned the field in the finals and bolted ahead for a winning time and personal best mark of 23.23.
Sophomore Sarah Broderick (Haverhill, Mass.) also participated in the 50-yard freestyle. She paced the field in the preliminary heat with a career-best time of 23.38 and turned in a 23.47 mark in the finals, placing seventh in the event.
Freshman Jessica Harper (Easthampton, Mass.) set the pace in the 500-yard freestyle preliminaries, cutting through the water to earn a time of 4:55.13. However, she was outreached in the finals, engineering a runner-up time of 4:55.61.
Pittsburgh
With representatives of the Pitt men’s team in Atlanta, Ga., for the ACC Championships, the remaining members of the University of Pittsburgh men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams, along with 26 other competing schools, today began competition in the 2015 Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships at Joseph C. Trees Pool.
The Panthers captured top finishes today in the women’s 200 free relay, women’s 400 medley relay, women’s 1-meter diving and men’s 3-meter diving.
The women’s 200 free relay squad’s winning time of 1:33.20 marked a new ECAC best and was the Pitt women’s team’s fourth-fastest showing in the event this year. The women’s 400 medley relay raced to a 3:46.45 in prelims, also a new top ECAC mark, then beat their own time by a full second in the finals to post the third and fourth-fastest times in that event by Pitt women this season.
Meme Sharp (Noblesville, Ind./Noblesville HS) took first in the 1-meter diving competition with a score of 297.10. She was joined by two other Panthers as Sam Winkelmann (Richmond, Va./J.R. Tucker) (258.80) and Rachel Saunders (Warrington, Pa./Central Bucks West) (268.25) were the second and third place finishers.
In the men’s 3-meter dives, Pitt’s Tony Galante (Cary, N.C./Athens Drive) (342.60) and Dom Giordano (Wexford, Pa./Florida State) (332.95) finished one-two overall, respectively.
Other strong showings for the Panthers came from Andrew McCarthy (Bainbridge Island, Wash./Bainbridge) in the 500 free (5th, 4:29.31), Charlene Yuan (Portland, Ore./Westview) in the 200 IM (3rd, 2:05.00), and Alex Iwanicki (Glen Ellyn, Ill./Glenbard West) in the 50 free (3rd, 23.36) – matching her career-best.
Vermont
Vermont's 200 free relay squad earned a spot on the podium with a third-place finish to highlight the first day of the ECAC Championships at University of Pittsburgh's Trees Pool on Friday night.
Vermont sits in seventh place in the team standings with 60 points following the opening day of competition. Host-team Pittsburgh owns the top spot with 214 points, while Navy (152.5 pts.) and Pennsylvania (152) round out the top-three.
In the opening event of the championships, Vermont's relay team of Christa Weaver, Andie Blaser, Courtney Gray and Abby Holmquist combined to swim the 200 free relay in 1:35.09 to register a third-place showing.
Weaver also posted UVM's top individual finish of the night by registering the ninth-fastest time in the 50 free in 23.87.
Rookie Kelly Lennon was the Catamounts' top finisher in the 500 free event, clocking in at 5:05.70 to register a 15th-place finish. Alexy Novelli also earned a 15th-place showing in the 200 IM, as the freshman touched the wall in 2:12.29 to collect points for Vermont.
