USMMA Men
The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy men’s swimming & diving team took part in the competitive Metropolitan Collegiate Championship Meet this past weekend in New Jersey at Rutgers University. The event featured one Division I team, numerous Division II teams and several Division III teams. The Marines closed out the meet in fifth place overall and third out of D3 teams.
Five Mariners recorded NCAA qualifying marks at the event. Senior Gerrit Porter (Houston, Texas) earned cuts in the one- and three-meter diving events. Junior Stone Hewitt (Destin, Fla.) made the marks in the 100 and 200 breaststroke events. Sophomore Adam Fisher (Edgerton, Wisc.) earned a spot at diving regionals in the one-meter dive. Freshman Christopher Kahl (Solomons, Md.) recorded a D3B cut time in the 200 backstroke and junior Karl Sasse (Frederick, Md.) had an NCAA qualifying time in the 100 breaststroke.
The Academy’s one-meter diving mark was also broken this weekend by Porter, who recorded a score 563.75 in the preliminaries of the event on Friday afternoon. The record was previously set in 2010 by former Mariner Nicholas Halbach '11, who was a National Champion Diver for Merchant Marine.
The Mariners also had two other top-10 finishes on the weekend, as the 800 freestyle relay squad of Propst, junior Kevin Sweetman (Austin, Texas), Jepsen and Terselic placed third in 7:05.23 and, individually, Sweetman placed sixth in the 1650 freestlye with a time of 16:47.87.
Up next, Porter and Fisher will compete in the NCAA Diving Regional Meet next weekend for a chance to qualify for the National Championships. The rest of the Mariner swimmers will await word from the NCAA on whether their qualifying marks from throughout the year were low enough to get into the National Championship Meet.
USMMA Women
The USMMA women’s swimming & diving team competed at the very competitive Metropolitan Collegiate Championship Meet this past weekend at the Rutgers Aquatic Center. The event featured one Division I team, numerous Division II teams and several Division III teams. After the three days, the Mariners finished in eighth place overall and fifth out of D3 teams.
Merchant Marine had two team members earn NCAA Qualifying marks in three different events, as junior Blythe Fentress (Shady Shores, Texas) earned the cuts in both the one- and three-meter diving events, while freshman Tyler Wickesberg (Albuquerque, N.M.) earned a D3B cut in the 100 backstroke.
Wickesberg also broke three Academy records in preliminary events and then rebroke them in the finals at night. She sent new marks in the 50 freestyle (24.57), 100 back (57.34) and 100 free (53.16). Fentress set a new Academy record in the three-meter dive with a score of 492.25 in the preliminaries and then finished the event in first place over all with a score of 472.40 in the finals. It was the Mariners’ only first-place finish on the weekend.
The 800 freestyle relay squad of Wickesberg, freshman Ella Sherrill (Ketchikan, Alaska), junior Jolyn Green (Riverside, Calif.) and sophomore Liz Grove (Winchester, Va.) also broke the Academy record by finishing with a time of 8:04.72, almost four seconds ahead of the previous mark.
Up next, Fentress will compete in the NCAA Diving Regional Meet next weekend for a chance to qualify for the National Championships in both the one- and three-meter diving events. Also, Wickesberg will await word from the NCAA on whether her qualifying marks from throughout the year are low enough to get her in the National Championships.
