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 | GU Falls to Drexel in Last Meets at Home

AISHA MALHAS FOR THE HOYA
The Georgetown men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams fell to Drexel University 202-98 and 159-135, respectively, at their last home meet of the season at the Albert G. McCarthy Pool on Saturday.

The Georgetown men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams fell to Drexel University 202-98 and 159-135, respectively, at their last home meet of the season at the Albert G. McCarthy Pool on Saturday.

Head Coach Jack Leavitt said that although the outcome was not what he wanted, he was pleased with the Hoyas’ performance at this point in the season.

“The result wasn’t there in terms of scores, but I thought we swam really well for this point in the season for as tired as we are physically from the training,” Leavitt said.

Although freshman Evie Mauzé initially broke the pool record in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:05.33, Drexel sophomore Alexa Kutch finished just .32 seconds before Mauzé with a time of 2:05.01 to win the event and reset the record.

“It was unfortunately broken by the [athlete who placed first] from Drexel. As a freshman, for her to be as consistent as she has been is fantastic,” Leavitt said.

Sophomore Henry Hollinshead swam the fastest on his 200-yard backstroke since the Bucknell Invitational meet, placing third with a time of 1:53.24, just 0.17 seconds behind freshman Drew Carbone.

Hollinshead said that the team was satisfied with their results against Drexel.

“A lot of us swam the fastest we had all year at Yates. We were rested, we were in shape, and we all came close to our season best for dual meets, so I was really happy with how we swam,” Hollinshead said.

The women’s diving team swept both diving events with freshman Riley Fujioka placing first, sophomore Elizabeth Miller placing second, and freshman Naomi Peng placing third.

“I was learning a new dive, a reverse two and a half,” Fujioka said. “I was nervous about competing it, but I nailed it and was really happy about it. I couldn’t have done that without my coach encouraging me and my whole team supporting me through that experience.”

Sophomore Cristina Barrett placed first in both of her distance events, winning the 1000-yard by 10 seconds and 500-yard freestyle by two seconds. Her performance earned her the Big East Female Swimming and Diving Athlete of the Week honor.

Other victories included the women’s 200-yard relay team of sophomore Morgan Conley, freshman Grace Sun, freshman Belinda Donohoe and senior Bailey Page.

On the men’s side, freshman Andrew Stange in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:41.28, freshman Jack Lynch in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:55.35, and junior Seth Maslowski in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 21.48 all recorded individual victories.

Coach Leavitt highlighted senior Chase Ladman’s performance in the 1000-freestyle, who got third despite being out-touched by a couple of hundredths of a second.

“The place isn’t as important as how hard he worked in that race that really got his team fired up, Leavitt said. “Chase really stepped up on senior day and Andrew won the next race afterwards. I think that was partly to do with the excitement from Chase’s event.”

The 19 seniors on both teams were honored with a mid-meet ceremony.

Coach Leavitt said it will be hard to replace the seniors’ contributions to the program.

“Our team has 62 athletes and to have 19 of them graduate at once is going to be challenging. They’re not only some of our better swimmers or divers, but also great leaders and mentors to their classmates,” Leavitt said. “Their impact is going to last in a lot of different ways because of how good of examples they are as student-athletes here.”

Up next, the Hoyas will face Seton Hall and Providence on Saturday, Feb. 3, in Berkeley, New Jersey. This meet will be a preview of the conference competition the team will face before heading into the Big East Championships later in the month.

“It looks like it is going to be a battle for both [the men’s and women’s teams]. Both finished in fourth place four years in a row. I know this senior class would like to be the first to leave here with a Big East Championship,” Leavitt said. “I think this year [the meet] could be a fight to the end.”

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