West Chester, College of New Jersey v. Johns Hopkins

BALTIMORE, Maryland, January 19. THE third-ranked Johns Hopkins men's swimming team grabbed first place in 12 of 18 events to fuel a dual-meet sweep of West Chester and The College of New Jersey. The Blue Jays, who improved to 6-2 on the year and have won six straight dual meets, defeated West Chester 182-146 and TCNJ 237-91. TCNJ entered the meet ranked 20th in the nation in Division III, while the Golden Rams compete at the Division II level.

Hopkins opened the meet with a first-place finish in the 200 medley relay as the foursome of John Thomas, Brian Keeley, Spiros Moisiades and Brad Test clocked in at 1:34.83 to take the top spot by nearly three seconds. The victory was the first of four in relay events for the Blue Jays, who also claimed the 200 free relay (Thomas, Teddy Bulakul, Neil Mahoney and Test) with a time of 1:25.61, the 800 free relay (Mahoney, David Postetter, Test and Alex Hsieh) in a time of 6:59.80 and the 400 medley relay (Thomas, Matt Fedderly, Bob Sershon and Test) in 3:31.32. I a tightly-contested race to the finish, Hopkins slipped past the top team from West Chester by less than four-tenths of a second in the 200 free relay, but won the 800 free and the 400 medley relays by more than four seconds each.

Fedderly was the only swimmer in the meet to win three events as he grabbed first place in the 400 IM (4:13.59), the 100 breast (58.12) and the 200 breast (2:07.22). His effort in the 200 breast led a sweep of the top four spots in the event for the Blue Jays as Keeley (2nd/2:12.74), Brian Kegelman (3rd/2:14.54) and Frank Long (4th/2:14.82) rounded out the top four.

Thomas and Test both won a pair of individual events to go along with their efforts in the relays. Thomas won the 100 back (51.36) and the 200 back (1:55.27) with Hsieh adding a second-place finish in the 100 back (55.09). Test placed first in both freestyle sprints as he took the 50 (21.40) and the 100 (46.40).

Mahoney capped the individual winners for the Blue Jays as he grabbed the top spot in the 200 IM with a time of 1:57.99.

As for the women, sophomore Caitlin Dennis won three individual events, placed second in another and the Johns Hopkins women's swimming team grabbed five overall first-place finishes as the Blue Jays split with West Chester and The College of New Jersey. Johns Hopkins, which is ranked seventh in the nation and now stands a 5-3 on the year, handily defeated New Jersey (222-93), but fell to the Division II Golden Rams (173-140).

Dennis got her performance off to a good start with a first-place showing in the 400 IM (4:41.17) as she won the event by more than six seconds. The Blue Jays grabbed the top four spots in the event as Kate Hansen (2nd/4:47.65), Mary Claire Kozlowski (3rd/4:48.98) and Michele Palopoli (4th/4:50.81) made it a clean sweep of the top four spots for Hopkins.

Dennis added first-place showings in the 200 IM (2:14.67) and the 200 breast (2:30.47) and a runner-up finish in the 100 breast (1:10.52). Dennis' efforts in the breaststroke were the front-half of a solid one-two punch for the Blue Jays as freshman Charlotte Floria placed third in the 100 breast (1:10.73) and second in the 200 breast (2:33.89).

Hopkins also took the top two spots in both the 200 fly and the 200 back. Palopoli placed first in the 200 fly with a time of 2:12.65 and was followed closely by classmate Meagan Heslin, who added the runner-up finish with a time of 2:14.37. Erica Pakkala and Hansen made it a one-two sweep in the 200 back as Pakkala clocked in at 2:11.30 with Hansen placing second (2:14.14).

Hopkins didn't place first in any of the five relay events, but added four second-place finishes to fuel its effort on the day. The 200 free relay (1:43.91), 800 free relay (8:05.23), 400 medley relay (4:10.13) and 400 free relay (3:44.48) teams all placed second to relay teams from West Chester.

Special thanks to Johns Hopkins for contributing this report.

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