Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Season Ends For Hoyas After ECACs, Big Easts

Charles Nailen/The Hoya Swimming closed out its season this past weekend. The Georgetown Swimming and Diving team brought its postseason to a close over the past two weekends. First, the Hoya swimmers and divers who qualified for the Big East Championships competed on Feb.15, 16 and 17 at the Goodwill Games Swimming Center in Hempstead, N.Y. Both the men’s and the women’s team placed 13th of 13 schools overall in the competition, with all Big East teams, save Providence, competing. The women tallied 23 points in the three days of competition, while the men acquired 37. Pittsburgh won the championship in the men’s division, and the University of Notre Dame took the women’s division title. Georgetown also sent five women to the East Coast Athletic Conference Open Championships last weekend in Sewel, N.J.

The men’s swimmers started the first day of competition off strongly with good efforts by the medley relay team. The combination of juniors Chris Lengle, Matt O’Connor, Will iller and sophomore Bryan Evangelista placed 11th in the 200-yard freestyle medley with a time of 1 minute 27.5 seconds. Lengle also turned in a strong performance in the 50-yard freestyle placing 14th with a time of 21.21 seconds.

Head Coach Bethany Bower was pleased with the men’s performance overall, especially with the Georgetown school record-breaking time trial completed by Evangelista in the men’s 200-yard butterfly. David Kovak had set the record in 1988 with a time of 1:57.44, but Evangelista bested the mark by more than a half a second (1:56.83).

“It’s been a really great season for that kid; he shows a lot of promise for our future as a team,” Bower said.

The women also ended up with some outstanding showings and personal bests. Freshman Kathryn Harrison took a surprising 12th place in the one-meter diving competition (204.90), a finish that Bower called “a phenomenal end to her season.”

The Hoya relay team of junior Caragh Moynihan and sophomores Kristie Hunt, Lauren Moynihan and Genna McKeel garnered a time of 4:12.04 in the 400-yard medley relay to earn a 12th place finish. Bower was happy with the girls’ performance but disagreed with some of the events.

“I am in disagreement with the way the Big East runs its relay competitions. I could only race girls who had qualified individually in other events, which really limited what I could do. If a meet is supposed to be about quality, I believe I should be able to put my best swimmers for that event in that competition.”

In the ECAC Championships, freshman Kathryn Harrison was Georgetown’s only point-scorer, with a 12th place performance in the three-meter diving competition. Katie Hayes set a new school record in the 200-yard butterfly competition (2:11.75) overcoming the previous record of 2:12.14 set in 1996 by Jinnyn Wiley. Colleen Newman showed an outstanding improvement in her event, upping her personal best time by over 20 seconds. Bower reported that practically everyone set a personal best or close to it, and she was very happy with the effort shown by the women.

On the whole, Bower was very content with the team’s performance both at the championships and throughout the season.

“We’re a good team, not a great team compared to our Big East competitors,” Bower said. “But we really can’t be compared to them. We are a non-scholarship program when practically all our other competitors are fully-funded. That presents a problem.”

Still, Bower believes strongly in building on the base set by her current team to improve and succeed in upcoming seasons.

“I think everyone came out of it feeling positive and excited about what the future holds, I know I am,” she said.

Related Links

 Swimming Team Pages

 Men’s Swimming Schedule

 Women’s Swimming Schedule

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