The Rutgers swimming and diving team concluded its home schedule for the 2015-16 season, as the Scarlet Knights registered a 205-91 dual victory over New Hampshire on Saturday at the RU Aquatics Center. Junior Rachel Stoddard (Hillsborough, N.J.) and freshman Francesca Stoppa (Trento, Italy) both recorded two NCAA "B" cuts during the meet, as the Scarlet Knights collected 12 victories in the win.
"I think it was a strong meet for us," said head coach Petra Martin. "We put our kids in a lot of different and challenging situations with a lot of back-to-back swims, but we're obviously building tough competitors and we're tying to see how they respond to it. They did a good job today."
The meet served as a makeup of the dual scheduled for Jan. 23 between the two schools, which was cancelled due to inclement weather. New Hampshire's scores from its meet on Friday, Jan. 29 against Maine were combined with RU's times from today to come up with the final result.
Rutgers also honored its four seniors - Sarah Coyne (Osceola, Ind.), Sophie Newton (Leesburg, Va.), Morgan Pfaff (Red Lion, Pa.) and Joanna Wu (Kent, Wash.) - before the meet, which served as their last home event of their Scarlet Knight careers.
"They're a great group of kids," Martin said. "They had fun here the last three years. Obviously, we still have a few big meets ahead of us, so they'll have their opportunities to produce their last punches. We'll miss them and wish them all the best."
Stoddard recorded her two "B" cuts in the 100 and 200 breast. Stoddard hit the wall first with a time of 1:02.20 in the 100 breast, while recording a first-place time of 2:15.32 in the 200 breast to conclude her impressive morning.
Stoppa continues to excel for the Scarlet Knights in her first season with the program. Stoppa produced a "B" cut in the 200 fly, just missing the school record in the event by .24 seconds with a first-place finish of 1:58.26. Stoppa also recorded a "B" cut with a time of 54.18 in the 200 fly during her first home meet.
Also recording first-place times in individual events were Pfaff in the 200 IM (2:04.48), Wu in the 200 back (2:01.73), junior Meghan Kiely (Mountain Lakes, N.J.) in the 50 free (23.88) and freshman Vera Koprivova (Prerov, JC, Czech Republic) in the 100 back.
In relay action, Wu, Kiely, freshman Cynthia Wu (Princeton, N.J.) and sophomore Karli Rymer (Long Branch, N.J.) finished first with a time of 1:35.56 in the 200 freestyle relay, while Joanna Wu, Stoddard, Stoppa and Kiely recorded a first-place time of 1:41.71 in the 200 medley relay.
Off the boards, Sophomore Addison Walkowiak (Ballston Spa, N.Y.) contributed NCAA Zone Regional scores of 307.50 in 3-meter diving and 306.59 in 1-meter diving, both first-place results.
Rutgers returns to actions beginning Wednesday, Feb. 17 at the Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Mich.
