The first night of the Atlantic 10 Championships started with a lot of excitement and some upsets in the relays. The Women’s 1-meter diving finals took place between the 200 Medley relay and 800 Free relay events.
In the Women’s 200 Medley Relay, Duquesne was seeded 4th and dropped 4 seconds to earn the victory with a time of 1:41.23. Duquesne Junior Abby Watson started the evening off with a 25.35 split and teammates Kayla Owens (28.37), Kristen McKnight (24.47), and Shelly Helm (23.04) completed the team. The University of Richmond Spiders dropped 4.74 seconds to take 2nd place at 1:41.84 after being tied for 8th seed going into the relay. Davidson was also tied for 8th seed and finished 3rd with a time of 1:42.32.
George Washington dropped 5.47 seconds from its 7th seed spot to win the Men’s 200 Medley Relay with a time of 1:27.53 after Junior Gustav Hokfelt outswam his competitors by putting down a 21.91 backstroke split to gain the lead followed by Emils Pone blasting a 23.79 breaststroke split. The race for 2nd and 3rd was tight as St. Bonaventure finished with a 1:29.12 followed by University of Massachusetts at 1:29.32. UMass Freshman Ryan Pedrick was one of only two swimmers to break the 20 second barrier with a freestyle split of 19.95.
In the Women’s 1-meter diving competition, it was close all the way to the finish for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. In the end, only 2 points separated UMass Junior Emma Roush in 1st place with 273 points and Fordham Junior Wendy Espina-Esquivel in 2nd place with 271 points. UMass Freshman Maja Boric rounded out the top 3 with 264.35 points.
After diving, the focus shifted back to the pool for the 800 Freestyle Relay.
Davidson held onto their top seed position, finishing at 7:18.31 after a lead off leg of 1:45.85 from Senior Elise Lankiewicz, followed by Maggie Farrell (1:50.51), Kassie Shannon (1:51.95), and Frances Resweber (1:50.00). Duquesne placed 2nd with a time of 7:19.43 after out touching George Washington who finished at 7:19.46.
On the Men’s side, top seed St. Louis did not disappoint after Ryan McCoy (1:37.65), Grant Gamroth (1:37.43), Isaiah Williams (1:39.61), and Nick Jessee (1:37.73) combined to take 1st place with a time of 6:32.42. After both George Washington and Davidson were DQd, La Salle finish 2nd at 6:36.57 after dropping 14.57 seconds from a 6th seed time. St. Bonaventure took the 3rd place position with a time of 6:37.10 after a 19.44 second drop from their seed time. Fordham Freshman Joseph Vizza had the fastest split of the night, swimming a 1:36.46 freestyle leg.
Team scores at the end of the night are close and anything can happen over the next 3 days.
Women
University of Massachusetts 119
University of Richmond 77
Fordham 74
Duquesne 74
Davidson 72
St. Louis 56
St. Bonaventure 53
George Mason 52
University of Rhode Island 45
La Salle 37
George Washington 32
Men
St. Bonaventure 66
St. Louis 66
La Salle 64
University of Massachusetts 60
Fordham 58
George Mason 50
George Washington 40
Davidson 22
Michelle Lombana has been a swim mom for over 15 years, serving on various boards of directors for club swimming, summer swim league, and high school swimming. She founded College Swimming Guide to help simplify the recruiting process for swimmers who want to swim in college.