George Washington Sweeps Atlantic 10 Championships for Second Straight Year

Photo Courtesy: Atlantic 10 Athletics

George Washington Sweeps Atlantic 10 Championships for Second Straight Year

George Washington won the men’s and women’s Atlantic 10 Championships for the second straight year, at SPIRE Institute in Ohio.

It’s the second straight title for the women’s team, while the men are on top for the third consecutive year. The women’s team coasted with 794.5 points, well ahead of Richmond’s 479.5. The men’s team scored 783, comfortably past George Mason’s 507.5, to win their seventh title in the last eight years.

Both meets featured bafflingly close races in the middle of the pack. The women’s meet had three teams separated by a single point, George Mason edged Duquesne and Fordham. On the men’s side, UMass’s 458 was 1.5 ahead of Davidson for third.

Atlantic 10 Championships Team Scores

Women’s

George Washington 794.5
Richmond 479.5
George Mason 414
Duquesne 413.5
Fordham 413
Davidson 310
UMass 255
La Salle 218.5
St. Bonaventure 190
St. Louis 119
Rhode Island 83

Men’s

George Washington 783
George Mason 507.5
UMass 458
Davidson 456.5
Fordham 408.5
St. Bonaventure 357
La Salle 278
St. Louis 188.5

The George Washington women’s team had seven different swimmers win conference titles. They won two of the relays and made a massive move in the middle of the meet to take unshakeable control of the meet. They accounted for four of the eight meet records set on the women’s side, with George Mason adding three.

The definitive stretch came on Day 3. Barbara Schaal won the 100 butterfly in 53.80, with teammate Moriah Freitas third. Phoebe Wright, who was named Women’s Rookie of the Meet, followed by winning the 200 free, leading a parade of Colonials on the podium. Siena Senn followed in second, with Grace Olivardi third. Schaal returned to finished second in the 100 backstroke after Ava DeAngelis was second in the 100 breaststroke.

Freitas won the 200 fly on the final day of competition. Molly Smyers and Julia Knox went 1-2 in the 400 individual medley. Smyers was second to Ava Topolewski in the mile, the freshman’s winning time of 16:27.78 setting a conference record. It downed the meet record dating all the way back to 1995 (16:32.08, GW’s Bambi Bowman).

Topolewski was the only double champ for the Colonials, also winning the 500 free in an NCAA B cut. Wright was second in that event as GW took home four of the top six spots and second in the 200 back.

Knox won the 200 IM in an NCAA B cut of 1:57.81. That’s a pool and conference record, downing the mark set last year by Davidson’s Shelby Stanley, who finished third in her bid to repeat. Wright finished second to Smyers in the 400 IM, but she rewrote the meet record in prelims at 4:11.44, and was third in the 200 breast. Marlee Rickert won the 100 free, and Chloe Hernandez was third in the 50 free and fourth in the 100 free.

GW set the meet record in the 800 free, Wright, Senn, Knox and Smyers going 7:12.19. Hernandez, Schaal, Wright and Rickert won the 200 free relay.

The Women’s Most Outstanding performer was George Mason’s Jacquee Clabeaux. She won two events and finished second in her third, edging out her teammate Ali Tyler, who won three times.

Clabeaux set a meet record in the 100 breast, the third time in four seasons she’s won it. She lowered her mark in the event by going 59.81. She finally summited the mountain in the 200 breast, going stepwise from fourth as a freshman to third as a sophomore to runner-up last year. This time, she went 2:11.27 to win, taking down the record that had stood since Lauren Beaudreau of Richmond in 2009.

Clabeaux was second in the 200 IM. She helped George Mason set conference and pool records in the 400 free relay (with Tyler, Madison Nalls and Emma De Jong) and 400 free relay (with Tyler, De Jong and Abigail Murtaugh). George Mason was second in both 200-yard relays.

Photo Courtesy: Atlantic 10 Athletics

Tyler won the 50 free in 22.77, edging Richmond’s Abby Fuller by .01. Tyler had been 22.58, an NCAA B cut, in prelims. She also won the 100 back and 200 back. De Jong took home second in the 100 free, Murtaugh third in the 200 fly.

Richmond started the meet by setting a meet record in the 200 medley relay, the squad of Katelyn Pennell, Sara Greene, Fuller and Lauren Medlin going 1:39.30. Richmond finished no better than third in any of the other relays. Pennell finished third in the 100 back.

Duquesne produced the female diver of the meet in Amy Read, who won 1-meter. She was second on 3-meter, behind the rally of Millie Hafferty, the Fordham grad student finishing fourth in prelims before getting gold. Haley Scholer finished third in the 200 back.

Clare Culver added points for the Rams in second in the 500 free and third in the mile. Ainhoa Martin finished second in the 200 breast and fourth in the 200 IM. Leire Martin was third in the 400 IM.

Davidson’s Stanley was second in the 100 fly and the 200 fly to go with 200 IM bronze.

The George Washington men’s team showed similar dominance across the board at the men’s Atlantic 10 Championships. Five men won titles, led by two each from Marek Osina, Connor Rodgers, Djurdje Matic and Karol Mlynarczyk.

Matic and Rodgers accounted for two meet records each. After finishing second to teammate Matthew Whelan in the 50 free (19.74 to 19.81), Matic won his third straight 100 fly title, lowering his meet record to 45.76. He’s .04 off the conference record he set in 2021. Matic also tied the conference record in winning the 100 free in 43.42. It evens the mark held by St. Bonaventure’s Viacheslav Shuchukin from 2014.

Rodgers led the definitive statement on GW’s dominance. The sophomore won the 400 IM in 3:46.25, the different swimmer from GW to lower the record in as many years. Osina had won it last year, taking the record from Emils Pone. Osina finished second, followed by teammates Bode Ringenbach and Mikhail Lyubavskiy.

Rodgers also set the conference record in the 200 fly with a time of 1:44.47. Osina repeated as the 200 IM champion, a spot ahead of Ringenbach. He also won the 200 breast on the meet’s final day. Mlynarczyk swept the backstroke events, taking the 100 in a 1-2-3 with teammates Ryan Patterson and Ganesh Sivaramakrishnan, and the 200 with Patterson third. Whelan was third in the 100 fly and 100 free. Philip Moldovanu was second in the mile and third in the 500. Preston Lin was second in the 100 breast.

The only surprise was that the dominance in the relays wasn’t more decisive, thanks in part to a DQ in the 400 medley relay, where the Colonials had been the top seed by some five seconds. They had set a conference record in the 200 medley with the foursome of Mlynarczyk, Lin, Matic and Sivaramakrishnan in 1:25.69. The Colonials also won the 800 free and 200 free relays.

Fordham ended that streak in impressive fashion in the concluding 400 free relay. The quartet of Christian Taylor, Alex Wilhelm, Paris Raptis and Taras Zherebetskyy dropped nearly six seconds off their seed, and Zherebetskyy’s anchor leg of 43.43 was the fastest in the field to recoup a deficit and edge GW by .09. Raptis was the Rams’ standout, winning the 100 breast. He was second in the 100 fly and fourth in the 200 fly. He swam fly on the winning 400 medley relay, with Taylor, Noah Althoff and Zherebetskyy. Zherebetskyy finished second in the 100 free. Taylor was third in the 50.

The Atlantic 10 Championships Men’s Most Outstanding Performer and Most Outstanding Rookie went to Davidson’s Dylan Felt. He won the 500 free on the meet’s second day in an NCAA B cut of 4:20.02, then set the conference record in the mile by going 15:09.08. It downs a record that has been held since 2015 by UMass’s Alessandro Bomprezzi at 15:13.69. (GW’s Moldovanu was also under the mark at 15:09.60.) Felt also finished second in the 200 free.

George Mason’s Tate Anderson led the Patriots to second place in the team standings. He won the 200 free in 1:36.37, just .06 up on Felt. Anderson was second in the 200 back and third in the 200 IM.

UMass’s Tommy Cotner was named the Most Outstanding Male Diver. He won 1-meter and was third in 3-meter. St. Bonaventure’s Ben Giera had the reverse finishes.

Bonnies’ Max Murray finished second in the 500 free and third in the 1,650. Alexander Behr was second in the 200 fly. La Salle grabbed a pair of bronze medals via Zack Wolbert in the 200 fly and Felix Jedbratt in the 200 free.

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