Highlights from Total Performance Invitational

This weekend, the Kenyon Lords and Ladies hosted  the annual Total Performance Invitational, a seven team event which the University of Pennsylvania won handily on both sides. The meet – a three day affair – began with the timed final distance events on the first night. The rest of the meet was a prelims and finals affair.

Thursday Night:

• Women’s 800 Freestyle Relay
• Men’s 1650 Freestyle
• Men’s 800 Freestyle Relay
• Women’s 1650 Freestyle

Friday

•  200 Freestyle Relay
• 200 Butterfly
• 200 Freestyle
• 100 Breaststroke
• 100 Backstroke
• 400 IM
• 50 Freestyle
• 400 Medley Relay
• Women’s 1 Meter Diving
• Men’s 3 Meter Diving

Saturday

• 200 Medley Relay
• 500 Freestyle
• 200 Backstroke
• 100 Butterfly
• 200 Breaststroke
• 100 Freestyle
• 200 IM
• 400 Freestyle Relay
• Women’s 3 Meter Diving
• Men’s 1 Meter Diving

Thursday Highlights

Basically the whole of Thursday was a highlight, and judging by the number of records taken down or equaled, there will be some stellar swimming by these athletes across the next few months.

Anastasia Bogdanovski of Johns Hopkins started her relay team off with a bang, taking out the 800 freestyle relay with a blazing 1:47.67 to break her own JHU school record by .07 seconds. Her three contemporaries – all freshmen, by the way – Courtney Cowan, Anna Wisniewski and Kaitlin Jones combined to post a 7:22.96 and claim the victory nearly a second ahead of second place Penn.

Penn’s Chris Swanson put up his mile in record breaking fashion. He posted a 14:43.87. In one swim, Swanson took down his own school record, broke the Kenyon pool record and reset the Total Performance Meet record. Additionally, he finished over 25 seconds before runner up Arthur Conover for the Kenyon Lords. Conover’s 15:09.48 mile reset the Kenyon record set in 04-05 by Elliot Rushton and was just a few seconds shy of the DIII “A” cut in the mile.

Elise Lankiewicz of Davidson joined the ranks of record breakers with her 16:42.26 mile, taking down the Davidson record in both the mile and the 1000 free. She had set both the previous year at this meet. Runner up Mariah Williamson of Kenyon also broke her own school record, posting a 16:48.07.

To complete the record breaking Friday night, Penn put together the quartet of Dillion Mchugh, Eric Schultz, Michael Wen and Kevin Su who posted a 6:31.98 to snap the school, pool and meet records, finishing ahead of the runner up Lords. Additionally, Evan Holder’s lead off leg for the 5th place finishing JHU tied the school record for the 200 freestyle set by Will Kimball.

Friday Highlights

Kenyon’s Kanchi Desai posted a runner-up finish in the 200 butterfly (2:02.66), putting her as the second fastest swimmer in the event in Division III so far this year, behind Wheaton IL’s Kirstin Nitz. In the B final, JHU’s Courtney Cowan dropped nearly three seconds to swim the third fastest 200 fly in the program’s history.

In the 200 freestyle, it was a very tight race, JHU’s Bogdanovski triumphed setting new school, meet and pool records with her 1:47.31. Also under the meet record but .04 seconds behind her was Davidson’s Lankiewicz.

Eric Schultz of Penn posted a new school, pool and meet record in the prelims of the 200 freestyle with a 1:36.34. In finals, however, he was eclipsed by Kenyon’s Austin Caldwell who claimed the victory in 1:37.11, which made a DIII A cut.

The 100 breaststroke saw several records come crashing down. Davidson’s Katy Williams broke the school record in prelims and then lowered her time in finals to a 1:02.97, just .03 ahead of runner up Katie Kaestner from Kenyon. Freshman Gwynnie LaMastra of JHU got in on the record action, taking down her school record with her third place 1:03.82.

In the men’s 100 breaststroke, JHU’s Holder dropped over a second and won the B final in 55.50 to break a  seven year old school record.

The women’s 400 IM saw Penn’s Ellie Grimes rewrite the pool and meet records with a personal best of 4:20.94.

On the men’s side, Alex Peterson of Penn took down his school record along with the pool and meet records with his prelims swim of the 400 IM (3:50.35). He was just a shade slower that night, posting a 3:50.88 to finish 1-2 with teammate Grant Proctor who previously owned the 400 IM record for Penn.

The women’s 50 freestyle went to Penn’s Rochelle Dong  (23.06) who was .09 off the school record in the event, and who finished .01 ahead of JHU’s Bogdanovski. For Bogdanovski, 23.07 is the second fastest time in the JHU program’s history.

Penn’s Schultz did a little record breaking in the 50, after his success in the 200 freestyle. His prelims swim of 19.77 broke the 20 second barrier and gave him both pool and meet records. Additionally, he was only .07 off the school record with his preliminary time. In finals, Schultz posted a 19.94 to win.

The final record-breaking effort of the day came from diver Maria Zarka for Kenyon who posted a 481.35 point tally to crack her own pool record set in the 2012-13 season.

Saturday Highlights

In the men’s 500 freestyle, Penn’s Swanson claimed the victory in 4:21.15, under the pool and meet records, and more than four seconds ahead of the next fastest athlete. Finishing fourth in the same event was JHU’s distance standout, Andrew Greenhalgh, who posted the second fastest 500 time in the program’s history (4:26.08), just a bare .38 seconds off a twelve year old school record.

Penn’s Grimes delivered again in the women’s 200 breaststroke, erasing a two year old school record and posting new meet and pool records with her 2:15.99. JHU’s LaMastra finished fourth in finals, resetting a seven year old school record with her time of 2:18.73.

In the women’s 200 IM, JHU’s Wisniewski claimed the pool and meet records as well as entering her name in the JHU record books with a 2:03.57. That time puts her at the top of the DIII list for the 200 IM so far this year by almost 2.5 seconds.

In the men’s 200 IM, JHU’s Holder claimed his third school record of the meet, dropping almost two seconds off his own personal best in prelims to go under the pool and meet records as well with a 1:47.69. In finals, he posted a 1:48.22 for the victory.

For complete results on the Women’s side, click here. For complete results on the Men’s side, click here.