Villanova vs. La Salle

VILLANOVA, Pennsylvania, October 22. THREE different swimmers were double-winners and Villanova (1-0) won 10 of the 11 events it competed in as the women's swimming & diving team opened the 2010-11 campaign with a 147-90 victory over La Salle (0-1) at the Villanova Swim Center on Friday afternoon. Sophomores Hayley Edwards (Pilesgrove, N.J.) and Roxy Tammadge (Durban, South Africa) won two races each and junior diver Amanda DiMarco (Cortland Manor, N.Y.) also won two events as the Wildcats began the season on a winning note.

Edwards won both the 1000 yard freestyle and the 200 butterfly, posting a comfortable margin of victory in both events. She led a 1-2-3 sweep for Villanova in the 1000 free, which was the first individual race of the day. Edwards touched the wall with a time of 10:12.54 to beat out fellow sophomores Summer Cook (Thornton, Colo.) and Leigh Anne Patterson (Cherry Hill, N.J.), who came in second (10:23.42) and third (10:24.07), respectively.

In the 200 fly, Edwards finished with a time of 2:06.04 and beat the runner-up from the Explorers by more than eight seconds. The victories for Edwards were the 16th and 17th of her career in just the first meet of her sophomore season.

Tammadge was victorious in both the 200 and 500 free and, like Edwards, led a 1-2-3 sweep for the Wildcats in one of her events. In the 500 free, Tammadge recorded a winning time of 4:55.94 to come in ahead of Patterson ((5:04.78) and Cook (5:09.93). She also raced to an easy win in the 200 free, where her time of 1:53.86 was nearly three seconds faster than the second-place finisher.

Villanova dominated the diving events thanks to DiMarco, who teamed with freshman Lauren Brown (Schnecksville, Pa.) to place first and second on both the 1-meter and 3-meter boards. DiMarco had a score of 305.70 points in the 1-meter competition and tallied 334.43 points on the 3-meter board, while Brown came in with results of 273.23 and 308.33, respectively. In addition, freshman Michelle Hall (North Andover, Mass.) came in fifth in the 1-meter competition.

There were two other individual events in which the Wildcats had at least the top three swimmers. Sophomore Erin Malone (Sydney, Australia) finished first in the 200 individual medley in 2:09.43 to beat out teammates Astrid Armgarth (Linkoping, Sweden), Mikah Schlesinger (Kefar Saha, Israel) and Laura McLaughlin (West Chester, Pa.).

Schlesinger enjoyed a successful collegiate debut with a win in the 200 backstroke, finishing in 2:05.67 ahead of juniors Lindsey Hagens (Westboro, Mass.) and Yolana Du Plessis (Boksburg, South Africa).

One other Villanova swimmer notched an individual victory, as sophomore Natalie Elphick (Durban, South Africa) paced a field of 12 swimmers in the 50 yard freestyle in a time of 24.23.

The meet started off with the 400 yard medley relay, which the Wildcats won with a time of 3:54.79 from their `A' relay quartet. Villanova also came in third (4:00.61) with their `B' squad and fourth (4:10.56) with a `C' team in the relay.

Complete results from Friday's meet can be found by clicking on the link at the top of this release. Continue reading below to find results just for Villanova.

Next up on the schedule for the Wildcats is a quadrangular meet next Friday and Saturday at Rutgers, where the team will compete against the host Scarlet Knights in addition to Connecticut and Georgetown. The action at Rutgers gets underway at 5 p.m. next Friday and 10 a.m. next Saturday.

In its season opener, Villanova (0-1) was defeated by a score of 162-78 by La Salle at the Villanova Swim Center on Friday afternoon. The team also competed against members of the Syracuse men's team in the Wildcats opening meet of the 2010-11 season. Sophomore Scott Thiede (Holmdel, N.J.) won the 500 yard freestyle to record Villanova's only individual victory of the day.

Thiede paced a field of six swimmers in the 500 free and touched with a winning time of 4:45.17 to come in just over 1.5 seconds faster than the Explorers runner-up. Also in this event, sophomore Russell Paulson (West Chester, Pa.) placed fifth overall in 4:52.50 and senior Tom Maughan (Park Ridge, N.J.) was sixth (5:11.66).

In addition to his one victory, Thiede took second place in the 200 free in a race that came down to the wire. Thiede was just .12 seconds behind Cameron Cabrera from La Salle with 50 yards left before Cabrera surged ahead and won by a margin of .57 seconds. Thiede recorded a time of 1:44.02 and finished ahead of teammates Paulson (1:46.91), Maughan (1:53.16) and sophomore JV Kracke (Marlboro, N.J.) in the race.

Sophomore Braden Clarke (Chappaqua, N.Y.) finished second in the 200 backstroke with a mark of 1:57.88, coming in ahead of freshman Kyle Grant (Winnetka, Ill.) in third place, sophomore Jordan Bickhart (Wyomissing, Pa.) in fourth and senior Christopher Jordan (Holland, Mich.) in sixth place.

Another runner-up for the Wildcats was freshman Ben Smith (Sudbury, Mass.), who swam the 200 butterfly in 1:57.52 to come in second out of six swimmers in the race. Bickhart also competed in the 200 fly and registered a time of 2:03.46.

Villanova fielded both an `A' and a `B' quartet in the 400 yard freestyle relay and those squads came in second and third, respectively. The `A' team for the Wildcats posted a time of 3:15.77 and was edged in a tight finish by just .07 seconds. Villanova trailed the `A' quartet from La Salle by nearly four seconds midway through the relay and nearly made up that entire margin over the final two legs of the race.

On the diving side of the meet, junior J. Paul Suydam (New Brunswick, N.J.) finished in second place on both the 1-meter and 3-meter boards with scores of 247.73 points and 240.30 points, respectively. Classmate Charlie Cornelius (Armonk, N.Y.) came in third on the 3-meter board (214.35) and was fifth on the 1-meter board (233.63).

Complete results from Friday's meet can be found by clicking on the link at the top of this release. Continue reading below to find results just for Villanova.

Next up on the schedule for the Wildcats is a triangular meet next Friday and Saturday at Rutgers, where the team will compete against Connecticut and Georgetown. The action in New Jersey gets underway at 5 p.m. next Friday and 10 a.m. next Saturday.

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

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