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

SWIMMING & DIVING | Women Sweep District Rivals, Men Split Meet

GUHOYAS
The women’s swimming and diving team beat American and GWU last weekend. The Hoyas won the 200-yard medley, 100 breaststroke and 1000 freestyle.

The Georgetown swimming and diving teams began the second half of their season this past weekend with victories against The George Washington University and American University during a meet at American’s Reeves Aquatic Center.

The women’s team swept both teams with scores of 127-115 and 175.5-64.5, respectively. The men’s team defeated American 166-56, but fell short to GWU 153-72.

The men’s and women’s teams had not raced since the Bucknell Invitational in late November, but the teams gathered over the break for a weeklong training trip in Bermuda.

Both teams are preparing to host Drexel University this Saturday for the last home meet of the season.

Head Coach Jack Leavitt said the focus in preparation changed after a rigorous week of training.

“This week, we are focusing on speed development,” Leavitt said. “Now we are trying to get up on the blocks, go fast in practice and see how fast we can be for the last few weeks of the season before resting up for the Big East Championships.

The 200-yard medley relay team of freshman Alexandra Rieker, senior Molly Fitzpatrick, sophomore Lauren Henasey and freshman Belinda Donohoe captured first place for the women’s team. Fitzpatrick also placed first in her 100 breaststroke, defeating the second place finisher, GWU junior Emily Zhang, by almost a full second.

Sophomore Cristina Barrett placed in both of her events, winning the 1000 freestyle and placing second in 500 freestyle. Barrett said that working on finishing races strong in training helped her succeed last weekend.

“I have been working a lot on back-half speed, and I can definitely see that paying off in both the 1000 and 500. I have been seeing that all year as well,” Barret said.

Leavitt commended Barrett’s consistency in these long-distance events.

“If you look at her results from the entire year, they are all within a few seconds of each other,” Leavitt said. “She is always the rock in that distance event where we can depend on her because she always does the job.”

On the men’s team, freshman Andrew Stange won the 200 freestyle by over a full second and fell just 0.31 seconds short of placing first in the 100 freestyle. Freshman Drew Carbone captured first in the 200 IM, touching the wall 0.17 seconds before his GWU opponent. Carbone credited work over the break on the 200 for his performance.

“I could feel all of the endurance work and stamina: it felt different than it had in the fall, so I can tell the training is really paying off,” Carbone said.

Barrett and Carbone both said the meet was a team effort.

“When we got to the meet, we were definitely sore and tired, but people stepped up for the meet. Even if at times we weren’t exactly where we wanted to be, everyone came to race,” Barrett said.

Carbone said the week brought the team together.

“We felt good as a team and a lot stronger getting into a race setting again,” Carbone added.

Heading into the last home meet of the season, Barrett and Carbone expressed the team’s emphasis on maintaining their excitement and energy.

“Positivity and keeping our morale up is something that is really important to us as a team. Going into this weekend, coming off our training trip, we really wanted to keep our positive vibes up because it is a competitive meet and we do want to win,” Barrett said.

The Hoyas will host Drexel University this Saturday, Jan. 20 at the McCarthy Pool at 1 p.m.

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