2024 A-10 Champs: George Washington Cracks 4 Conference Records on Day 1

2024 ATLANTIC 10 CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Feb. 21-24
• Hampton Virginia Aquaplex
• Championship Central
• Defending Champions: George Washington (Women 3x) George Washinton (Men 2x)
• Fan Guide
• Live Results
• Live Stream
• Day 1 Results

TEAM SCORES (THRU DAY 1)

MEN

1. George Washington – 111
2. UMass – 91
3. St Bonaventure – 90
4. La Salle – 84
5. George Mason – 63
6. Fordham – 60
7. Saint Louis – 55
8. Davidson – 51

WOMEN

1. George Washington – 80
2. Fordham – 66
3. Duquesne – 62
4. UMass – 60 (tie)
5. Richmond – 60 (tie)
6. St Bonaventure – 48
7. George Mason – 44
8. Davidson – 38
9. La Salle – 36
10. Rhode Island – 34
11. Saint Louis – 32

The 2024 Atlantic-10 Swimming & Diving Championships are underway at the Hampton Virginia Aquaplex. As per usual for conference meets, the first night of the meet featured the 200 medley and 800 free relays. The A-10 also had men’s 1-meter diving tonight, which is why the men’s team scores are higher than the women’s.

Of the 5 events that took place tonight, the A-10 Conference record went down in 3 of them (including a double whammy in one event), and another was missed by just 0.01 seconds. Moreover, all of those records were broken by George Washington. Talk about an exciting start to a meet!

The meet kicked off tonight with the women’s 200 medley relay, where George Washington won by well over a second. Marlee Rickert (25.18), Ava DeAngelis (27.09), Moriah Freitas (23.75), and Barbara Schaal (22.21) combined for a 1:38.23, blowing away the conference record of 1:39.30, which Richmond set at last year’s meet. The performance also marked a George Washington program record, the first of many on the night.

The Revolutionaries would go on to win the women’s 800 free relay in record fashion as well. Phoebe Wright (1:46.80), Julia Knox (1:47.85), Olivia Tighe (1:48.02), and Ava Topolewski (1:47.96) teamed up to clock a speedy 7:10.63. With that performance, they took more than a second off the previous A-10 Conference record in the event, which was 7:12.19 and set by George Washington last year. Additionally, Wright’s 1:46.80 lead-off leg marks a new George Washington program record in the women’s 200 free. ‘

The George Washington men shattered the conference record in the 800 free relay by an even bigger margin than the women’s team did. A big part of that was Toni Dragoja‘s phenomenal 1:33.35 lead-off leg, which set a new A-10 record in the men’s 200 free as well. Behind Dragoja, Misha Lyubavskiy went 1:36.64, Daniel Nagy split 1:36.96, and Connor Rodgers anchored in 1:37.97. They finished in 6:24.92, demolishing the A-10 record, which stood at 6:28.60 from 2019.

The Revolutionaries also won the men’s 200 medley relay, very nearly breaking another conference record in the process. Karol Mlynarczyk (21.71), Preston Lin (24.52), Djurdje Matic (19.95), and Ganesh Sivaramakrishnan (19.52) combined for a 1:25.70, missing the conference record by just 0.01 seconds. Notably, it was the exact same GWU team that set the A-10 record with a 1:25.69 at last year’s meet.

UMass picked up a big win in men’s 1-meter diving tonight, seeing Andrew Bell rack up a final score of 381.75. Bell finished a whopping 62.10 points ahead of anyone else.

Other notable relay splits in tonight’s events include Davidson’s Dylan Felt, who anchored his relay in a blistering 1:32.22, which was the fastest split in the event. If Felt and Dragoja end up racing in the 200 free later in the meet, that should be one heck of a race.