Women’s swimming dominates the water at F&M

The Carnegie Mellon men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams traveled to Lancaster, Pa. to compete in the Franklin & Marshall Quad Meet Saturday. The women dominated with solid wins over the host team (171–91), the University of Rochester (179–83), and Washington & Lee (137–125), and the men took victories over the host (202.50–59.50) and Rochester (201–61), but dropped a decision to Washington & Lee (156.50–105.50).

The women took first in the 200-yard medley relay with great performances from sophomore Molly Evans, junior Sara Andrews, sophomore Lauren Gumbel, and sophomore Brianne Burton in a time of 1:53.67, which improves their time from two weeks ago against Grove City College.

First-years Victoria Adams and Jen Sung finished second and third in the 1000-yard freestyle, touching the wall at 10:57.82 and 11:01.90, respectively. To follow, senior Allison Retotar hit the water to place second in the 200-yard freestyle in a time of 2:00.17.

Right after, Carnegie Mellon put away six straight victories over its opponents, with Evans kicking off the streak, winning in the 100-yard backstroke and 200-yard backstroke with season-best times of 59:05 and 2:06.32. Currently, these times qualify Evans for the 2009 NCAA championships. In addition, Evans tallied her third individual event of the afternoon in the 500-yard freestyle in 5:11.25.

“I had some competition in all of the backstroke events.” said Evans, “At Kenyon, I want to get my automatic cut for nationals. I’m really looking forward to what we can accomplish as a team when we’re fully rested for a meet."

Andrews won the 100-yard breaststroke and 100-yard freestyle with season-best times of 1:09.51 and 55.18. Sophomore Rebecca Ussai touched the wall first in the 200-yard butterfly in 2:14.63 and second in the 100-yard butterfly in 1:01.96, and Burton finished first in the 50-yard freestyle in a time of 25.39. To wrap up individual events on the women’s side, Retotar took first in the 200-yard IM in 2:16.56.
On the men’s side, the team finished second in the 200-yard medley relay with swims from senior Ryan Piper, junior Jason Huber, sophomore Travis Piper, and first-year Mike Stanton in a time of 1:38.59.

The Tartans swept the 1000-yard freestyle led by senior Tom McConnell in a time of 9:49.97, followed by sophomore Jonas Altman-Kurosaki touching the wall to take second in 9:58.24 and junior Gates Winkler with a career-best time of 10:04.81 to take third. Later in the afternoon, McConnell and Altman-Kurosaki took second and third in the 500-yard freestyle in times of 5:45.11 and 4:46.71, respectively.
Sophomore Josh Mathews placed second in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:46.11 and senior Ron Papa took second in the 100-yard backstroke (54.26) and the 200-yard backstroke (1:57.19). To follow, Carnegie Mellon dominated the breaststroke events with Huber taking first in the 100-yard event with a time of 1:01.24 and junior Andrew Seo followed just .07 second behind his teammate. Seo went on to take first in the 200-yard event in 2:12.69.

Carnegie Mellon went on to take third in the 200-yard butterfly with a finish from sophomore Justin Whaley in a time of 2:01.17, in the 50-yard freestyle from Stanton in 22.20, in the 100-yard freestyle to mark a season-best time of 48.74 for Mathews, and in the 200-yard IM from sophomore Alex Hanson in 2:00.57.

"We were going up against W&L that was rested, so the competition was much tougher but although some of us were disappointed, we still had many strong performances. It was an encouraging way to end the first half of our dual meet season going into our taper meet, Nike Cup," said Altman-Kurosaki.

The teams will next compete at the Nike Cup Invitational held Dec. 4–6 at Kenyon College, which will determine whether swimmers qualify for the NCAA championship.