The UConn women’s swim and dive team (6-3) will welcome Central Connecticut State University to the Wolff-Zackin Natatorium for their penultimate dual matchup of the season today.
The Huskies are coming off a close loss in an away meet against UNH on Jan. 20. It took a 200 free relay pool record out of the Wildcats to put away UConn for good. The loss ended a four meet win streak.
Despite the loss, there were plenty of performances to be excited about, particularly in the dives. The trio of Julia Pioso, Kate Cooper and Ana Laura Faoro swept the top three spots in the 3M Dive, keeping them in the meet. The three will face off with the Blue Devils’ Jewelle Maziariz who is coming off two individual victories in the 1M and 3M Dives in the team’s loss at Rhode Island.
With the win in the 1M Dive, Maziariz extended her season and qualified for NCAA Diving Zones. That contest will be held from March 4 to March 6.
In the swim events against UNH, Olivia Hebert gave the Huskies 25 points with her wins in the 100y Breaststroke and 500y Freestyle, as well as her efforts in a second-place finish in the 400y Medley Relay and third-place finish in the 400y IM.
For CCSU, freshman Katrine O’Leary earned herself the NEC Rookie of the Week honor on Jan. 24 for playing a role in five wins in a team win over Sacred Heart. Her first of two individual wins came in the 100 Backstroke, winning in an impressive time of 58.55. The second came in the 50y Freestyle, claiming the victory in 24.84.
In the same week, the Blue Devils’ Gabi Wroblewski earned NEC Prime Performer honors in the win over Sacred Heart. She came out on top in the 400 IM, finishing in a time of 4:37.52. Against Rhode Island, the sophomore finished fourth in the 200 Butterfly. Wroblewski and O’Leary should provide impactful performances that UConn will look to shut down if they wish to defend the home pool.
As the regular season winds down, the Huskies hope to finish Friday with a win over the reigning NEC Champions. Results can be found on uconnhuskies.com.