Richmond Swimming Strong Against UNC-Wilmington, Old Dominion

WILMINGTON, North Carolina, October 11. UNC-Wilmington Swimming picked up its first win of the season, and first under new head coach Jason Memont, as the men beat Old Dominion 207-146. For the women, Richmond beat UNCW 183-169, while also downing ODU 201.50 to 150.50. ODU’s women beat UNCW, 177-175.

Richmond Press Release

Richmond swimming and diving notched a pair of wins by completing their tri-meet with wins over Old Dominion and UNC Wilmington. The Spiders beat ODU 201.5-150.50 and bested UNCW 183-169 in their opening weekend. A blend of familiar faces and the talented young crop of newcomers all contributed to the success of the team in this first meet of 2014-15.

After the opening relay of the day, the Spiders took the top two times in the first individual swim of the day, the 500 Free. Freshman Annie Lane (Vinton, Virginia) won her third individual event of the meet, with senior teammate Meredith Gouger (Cockeysville, Maryland) right behind in second.

Freshman Erin Barry (Millington, New Jersey) got a win in her first collegiate meet, taking the 200 Breast in 2:21.08.

A couple of familiar faces were at the top of the 200 Fly ledger. Juniors Melissa Ross (Warrington, Pennsylvania) and Kelley Yang (Ellicott City, Maryland) were first and second in that event to score more for the Spiders.

After taking the 200 IM on Friday, freshman Hannah Verrette (Marblehead, Massachusetts) won the 400 IM Saturday, with Gouger less than a second behind her in second. Barry came two seconds later for third against UCNW and fourth versus ODU.

The divers completed their competition with the 1m on Saturday. Sophomore Irina Chiulli (Westwood, Massachusetts) was first versus UNCW and second against ODU with a 246.45. Freshman teammate Laura Rokop (Carmel, Indiana) was one spot back with a 230.05 for a marked improvement from her 3m score from Friday night. Sophomore Mikaela Gekas-Robinson (Woodbury, New Jersey) was two behind Rokop, scoring 213.52 Saturday.

“The divers were very solid today,” said head diving coach Sean Letsinger. “I am excited to see the fundamentals that we worked on at the end of last spring paying off already this season. Hopefully we will take this experience and continue to improve going forward.”

Next weekend, the Spiders will host the Richmond Duals, with Davidson, Duquesne and George Mason all coming to town for a pair of meets on Friday and Saturday. The Mason and Davidson men will also be a part of the meet. Pairings for the first day will be announced by the Atlantic 10 Conference on twitter Monday morning.

UNC-Wilmington Press Release

A pair of winning relays and three event wins helped UNCW head coach Jason Memont gain his first win as head coach of the Seahawks as UNCW swam past visiting Old Dominion on Saturday at the Seahawk Natatorium.

The Seahawk men improved to 1-1 with the convincing win while ODU dropped to 0-1. The Seahawk women, meanwhile, moved to 0-3 with two losses to the Monarchs and Richmond.

The 200 Medley Relay of Valtteri Halonen, Daniel Dozier, Zach Sowers and Drew Gaertner clocked in with a winning time of 1:33.28. In the 400 Free Relay, Halonen, Alex Labonge, Adam Salzman and Gartner finished off the Monarchs in a time of 3:06.37.

Halonen added a win in the 200 Backstroke with time of 1:50.81. In the 100 Free, Salzman and Labonge finished 1-2 with times of 47.03 and 47.19 seconds, respectively.

Ross Wyand collected a win in the 400 IM (4:09.44).

On the women’s side, the 200 Medley Relay of Hannah Stephenson, Jenson Engen, Cat Gargula and Chelsea Tomko finished first in a time of 1:47.71.

Stephenson later took first in the 200 Backstroke (2:04.99).

In men’s diving, Nathan Lane (277.0) and Giovanni Villanueva (251.70) finished 1-2 in the men’s 3-meter board.

Old Dominion Press Release

Old Dominion University women’s swimming and diving won 400 free relay to end the meet and clinch a 177-175 victory over UNCW this weekend.

Sofie Sjoberg, Stephanie Norris, Morgan Johnson and Juliana dos Santos won the fina race in a time of 3:33.98, more than three seconds over the second place team.

dos Santos added her second win of the day in the 100 free with a time of 53.80.

Rachel Eckert swept the diving events with a score of 280.45 in the 1-meter dive.

Reed Mathews won his second event of the weekend with a time of 4:43.73 in the 500 free.

Eddie Hubert was a winner in the 200 breast with a time 2:09.01 while Mathews was a winner in the 200 fly.

Results: UNC-Wilmington vs. Old Dominion vs. Richmond

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