Rutgers Swims Past Villanova Behind Rachel Kimmel

Photo Courtesy: Rutgers Athletics

Rutgers women’s swimming & diving returned to the pool starting off the second half of the season with a 181-110 victory over Villanova at the Rutgers Aquatics Center on Saturday afternoon.

The Scarlet Knights got a trio of event wins from sophomore Sofia (Lobova) Maksimova, senior Sofia Chichaikina and graduate student Rachel Kimmel. All three along with newcomer Valeria Egorova won the 200 medley relay to open up the afternoon with Maksimova victories in the 50 free and 100 fly, Chichaikina taking first in the 100 free and 200 fly and Kimmel winning the 100 and 200 breast.

Other multiple victories included graduate student Alice Scarabelli in the 200 free and 200 back and Madison Murtagh in the 500 and 1000 free.

In addition to kicking off her Rutgers career swimming the opening leg of the winning 200 medley relay squad, Egorova also picked up a win in the 100 back with the ninth fastest time in the RU record book in her debut.

On the boards, senior Savana Trueb won 1-meter while sophomore Giulia Vittorioso was victorious on 3-meter as the Scarlet Knights went 1-2-3.

The meet kicked off with the quartet of Valeria Egorova, Rachel Kimmel, Sofia (Lobova) Maksimova and Sofia Chichaikina racing to a top time of 1:43.42 in the 200 medley relay.

Rutgers went 1-2 in the 50 free as Sofia (Lobova) Maksimova was in front in 23.09 followed by Alice Scarabelli in second in 24.19.

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Maksimova also helped Rutgers go 1-2-3 in the 100 fly. Maksimova led the Scarlet Knights with a time of 55.82 with Ellie Schinsky in second in 57.32 and Viktoriia Kostromina coming in third in 57.72.

Scarabelli did bring home wins in the 200 free clocking in at 1:49.28 and in 200 back touching in 2:00.19.

Valeria Egorova posted a time of 54.67 to win the 100 back and come in with the ninth fastest time “On The Banks” in her first Rutgers meet. She was the runner-up behind Scarabelli in the 200 back in 2:00.97 just missing the Rutgers top 10 by .80 seconds.

The breaststroke events once again belonged to Rachel Kimmel. Kimmel was the first to touch the wall in the 100 breast in 1:03.61 with junior Tina Celik the runner-up in 1:04.05. Kimmel clocked in 2:17.87 in the 200 breast as Celik placed third in 2:20.70.

Sofia Chichaikina picked up a victory in the 100 free swimming to a time of 52.03. She also claimed the 200 fly in 2:01.95 with Kostromina taking third with a time of 2:04.22.

Madison Murtagh continued to lead the distance corps taking first in the 500 free in 5:00.58 and the 1000 free in 10:19.87.

Savana Trueb won 1-meter with a score of 279.98 with Giulia Vittorioso the runner-up collecting 252.45.

Rutgers went 1-2-3-4 on 3-meter led by Vittorioso scoring 285.08. Trueb made her first appearance in the event logging 276.98 for second with Jenna Douglass in third posting 259.35.

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