Swimming kicks off season with victory over Grove City
The Carnegie Mellon men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams started their season off in an exciting fashion with 174–125 and 178–121 wins over Grove City College on Saturday.
The men’s team had outstanding individual performances, with first-place finishes in seven events. Senior Tom McConnell won both the 1000-yard freestyle in 9:42.72 and the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:45.54. Securing a Tartan top-two finish in the same events was junior Jonas Altman-Kurosaki.
For the 100-yard backstroke, senior Ron Papa took first in a close race by 0.05 seconds. Junior Jason Huber swept the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:00.30, followed by sophomore Justin Whaley winning the 200-yard breaststroke in 1:59.94 and junior Andrew Seo taking first with a time of 2:13.30 in the 300-yard breaststroke. For the 400 IM, sophomore Alex Hanson added another individual win, clocking in at 4:14.59.
In diving, junior Matt Kuhn took first in the three-meter board, followed by first-year Eli Fatsi and first-year Mike Alexovich in second and third.
As for the women’s team, the Tartans had an incredibly strong finish with victory in seven individual events. Sophomore Molly Evans took first in two backstroke races with times of 1:00.64 and 2:10.90, and a win in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:09.03.
Sophomore Brianne Burton took the top place in the 50-yard freestyle (25.47), followed by sophomore Rebecca Ussai who took first in the 200-yard butterfly (2:13.19) and first-year Hannah Gonzalez, who finished in first place in the 100-yard butterfly (1:00.89).
Senior Allison Retotar won two events, the 400-yard IM with a time of 4:46.82 and the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:58.73.
As for the diving team, the Tartans took all three top spots on the three-meter board with senior Alex DeFazio taking first, senior Charlotte Jennings following behind, and first-year Kendra Gaul finishing third.
Both the men’s and women’s teams will compete again next weekend when they host Clarion University at 1 p.m. in the University Center pool.