The Emory University men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams swept the competition at the home dual meet on Saturday, Jan. 24. The men defeated Darton College (Ga.) 119-87, while the women claimed a win over both Darton (154-34) and University of West Florida (130.5-103.5), a Division II team ranked 14th in the nation.
As the last home meet of the season, the graduating seniors were bittersweet as they celebrated ‘Senior Day.’ Before the meet, the 13 graduating seniors were honored in a special ceremony: Hayden Baker, James Davis, Kevin Flood, Cameron Herting, Griffin Neville, Eric Ruggieri, Megan Beach, Dana Holt, Nancy Larson, McKenna Newsum-Schoenberg, Lexi Tutor, Michelle York and Nina Zook.
The class of 2015 has greatly contributed to the success of the swimming and diving program over the past four years. They have continued the six-year streak of University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship titles, the men’s team finishing in the national top-five for three years, and the women’s team’s three-straight NCAA Division III Championships.
“We really have an incredible group of seniors this year. They’re great role models, both in and out of the water, and have really helped to keep a positive team atmosphere throughout the season,” sophomore Kristine Rosenberger said. “It’ll be really sad for everyone once they graduate, but the swim team has such a great network of alumni support that I know they’ll be involved with the team long after their last meet.”
The seniors continued to contribute wins to the team, as many of them were successful in their events. Larson and Newsum-Schoenberg both claimed first-place finishes in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 52.53 seconds, and the 500-yard freestyle in a time of 5:03.01, respectively. Larson then went on to team up with freshmen Cindy Cheng, junior Elizabeth Aronoff and Rosenberger in the 200-yard medley relay, winning the event with a time of 1:47.67, and then joined sophomores Claire Liu and Marissa Bergh and freshman Ming Ong to win the 200-yard freestyle relay with a 1:37.09 time.
“It was definitely exciting to walk away with two wins,” Rosenberger said. “This meet was a little bit different because we did a couple heats of exhibition swims to accommodate for the third team, so everyone got a chance to step up and we saw a lot of in season best times.”.
On the men’s side, the seniors added two wins. Baker won the 100-yard butterfly (50.53 seconds), and then teamed up with Ruggieri, sophomore Mitchell Cooper and freshman Oliver Smith in the 200-yard medley relay to win with a time of 1:33.38.
The men’s team underclassmen, too, helped lead Emory to their win. Junior Andrew Wilson recorded the team’s only NCAA ‘B’ cut time, in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 55.77 seconds. In the 1000-yard freestyle, freshman Henry Copses won with a time of 9:54.79. Junior Eagan Zettlemoyer won the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:43.92. Smith won the 50-yard freestyle in 21.09 seconds. Cooper captured the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:55.01, and sophomore Hayes Burdette-Sapp won the 100-yard freestyle in 46.61 seconds. The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Smith, freshman Wes Duke, freshman Alexander Hardwick and Burdette-Sapp ended the day with a win time of 1:25.00.
“For the girls, West Florida is a new Division II team, so they aren’t quite on the level of our girls, but they put up a good fight,” Burdette-Sapp said. “The guys came into the meet expecting to beat Darton, which we did handily.”
For the women, in addition to the wins captured by the seniors, many more wins came from underclassmen. In the 1000-yard freestyle, freshman Rebecca Upton won with a time of 10:27.34. Cheng won the 200-yard freestyle with a 1:53.34 time. Liu won the 50-yard freestyle in 24.17 seconds. Freshman Megan Campbell won the 100-yard butterfly in 58.34 seconds. Junior Ellie Thompson won the 100-yard backstroke in 58.53 seconds. Sophomore Annelise Kowalsky captured the 100-yard breaststroke with a 1:05.84 time.
“[This win] makes us really excited to see what we can do at the end of a season, both in terms of individual times and what we can accomplish as a team,” Rosenberger said.
For the divers, junior Kellen Hope captured first in the one-meter dive with a score of 264.90 and placed second in the 3-meter dive with a 268.35, both dives surpassing NCAA qualifying scores.
Sophomore Remi Levinson scored 168.08 in the three-meter dive, and 159.45 in the one-meter dive, both good for second place.
The men and women’s dual-meet record both improved to 3-2 and 7-0, respectively. The Eagles continue to their final dual meets of the season next Saturday, Jan. 31. The team will divide and conquer, as half the team will travel to Athens, Georgia to compete against a top Division I school, the University of Georgia, where the women’s team is ranked number one, and the men are second nationally. The other half will travel to Sewanee, Tenn. to face the Sewanee: The University of the South (Tenn.).
“Swimming against the top team in NCAA swimming will be interesting to be able to see how our team matches up. I know they have picked up some incredible freshmen, some of whom I played with on my club team. But, our program has also picked up some incredible freshmen,” Burdette-Sapp added. “The women actually have a chance in winning some of the events, and Andrew Wilson is a contender for a win in the breaststroke events."
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