Both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams fought hard for their spots in the top 10 ranks of the Terrapin Cup Invitational in College Park, Md., Nov. 16 to 18, proving themselves against their opponents during an already successful season. A few of the competing Tribe athletes even broke their own records, as well as improving their records in the College’s all-time bests.
p. On the first day of the tournament, sophomore Jeff Collier advanced to the finals in the 500-meter freestyle, finishing with a time of 4 minutes, 43.48 seconds, good for 16th place. Sophomore Jason Brisson also made it into the consolation finals where he swam his personal best time of 1:53.24 in the 200-m individual medley, moving him into the position of fourth-best in Tribe history for the medley. That same evening, one of the Tribe’s 200-m free relay teams came in eighth place with a time of 1:25.29 with senior Nick Duda, freshman Kevin Gallagher, freshman Joe DeBiase, and sophomore Nader Amer comprising the relay team.
p. The following day, Brisson had yet another exceptional run of events beginning with the 400-m individual medley scoring a time of 4:03.46, giving him the second-best time in Tribe history and third in the competition. Brisson also moved up to second all-time in the 200-m breaststroke with a fifth place of 2:03.95.
Junior Alex Jendzejec, DeBiase, Gallagher and Amer combined for a ninth place finish in the 800-m free relay, the fourth best time in Tribe history for the event at 6:5.77.
p. The men’s team wrapped up the Invitational in sixth place overall out of 11 teams competing at the event.
p. The women had an amazing start to their Invitational competition as freshman Katie Radloff broke the College’s school record in the 50-m free with a blazing time of 22.93, followed three places behind by senior Marnie Rognlien, who holds the second best time in the event in College history at 23.75 .
Sophomore Marina Falcone improved the school record she held in the 500-m free to a 4:56.39 finishing time. The 200-m free relay team, consisting of Radloff, Rognlien, Falcone and junior Meredith David, set the new school record at 1:35.51 while earning fifth place in the competition.
p. Radloff continued her record-breaking streak in the 200-m freestyle with a 1:49.30 time, earning herself her second NCAA qualification of the meet. Radloff also took part in the 800-m free relay team with Falcone, Rognlien and junior Christina Monsees to set a school record in that event as well, coming in at 7:36.14.
p. Barely missing a third NCAA qualification, Radloff broke yet another school record, this time in the 100-m free with a time of 49.55, with Rognlien coming in at 51.32 for the second-best Tribe time in history.
p. Falcone devastated a school record by 22.8 seconds, clocking in at 16:51.77 in the 1,650-m freestyle race. Among many other impressive times, the 400-m free relay team of Radloff, Falcone, Rognlien and sophomore Sara Fitzsimmons reset the school record with a time of 3:28.22.
p. “This weekend was a major step in the development of our program,” Head Coach McGee Moody said, “I think we’ll see some even bigger things in the weeks and months ahead.”
p. Coming up next for the Tribe swimmers is a noncompetitive meet in North Palm Beach, Fla. over the winter break against Johns Hopkins University.
