The Huskies showed their dominance once again with a win against Georgetown University. The team just came off a loss against Villanova University on Thursday but was able to regroup on Friday for their meet in Washington, D.C. on Saturday. This was the Huskies’ second Big East matchup and the first Big East matchup for the Hoyas. The Hoyas had some impressive swims, but they proved to be no match for the Huskies.
The meet started off strong for the Huskies with a first and third place finish in the 200-yard medley relay. The first-place finishers, who earned the team 11 points, consisted of junior Kayla Mendonca in backstroke, freshman Sydney Perkins in breaststroke, freshman Stella McCardie in butterfly and senior Maggie Donlevy in freestyle. This event started the Huskies off with a nine-point lead.
The Huskies also had strong performances in the second event with first, second and fourth place finishes. Junior Norah Rome finished an impressive 9.08 seconds ahead of junior Ashley Vensel, Georgetown’s third place finisher, with a time of 10:36.90. Second place finisher, freshman Zoey Griffin, finished an impressive 4.88 seconds ahead of Vensel, with a time of 10:40.10.
In the fourth event, the 100-yard backstroke, the Huskies dominated, placing first, second and fourth. Donlevy placed first in the event with a time of 55.75, which set a pool record for the event. A pool record is the fastest time ever recorded for a specific event in a particular pool. Her first place win also gave the team nine points, increasing their lead against the Hoyas.
The Huskies also dominated in the next event, the 100-yard breaststroke, winning first, second and fourth place. Perkins placed first in the event with a time of 1:03.58, setting a pool record for this event. The Huskies set two pool records in consecutive events, showing the teams’ strength and diversity.
The Huskies placed first in the first fourteen events; however, the Hoyas put up a fight in the seventh event, 50-yard freestyle. The first through third place swimmers for this event finished within tenths of a second of each other. The first place Huskie finisher, freshman Mackenzie Thomas, and the second place Hoyas finisher, junior Ines Lovato, ended only 0.06 seconds apart. The Huskies swept the ninth event, the 100-yard freestyle, getting first, second and third place. This sweep was executed by freshman Jessica Sheng, Donlevy and freshman Nadine Amin.
The Hoyas made the meet closer by obtaining a sweep in the 15th event, the 200-yard individual medley. This event also ended the Huskies first-place finish streak for the meet. Freshman Bella Dimaculangan got first place with a time of 2:08.76, freshman Jasmine Folk got second place with a time of 2:09.44 and freshman Emily Gao got third place with a time of 2:13.38.
The Hoyas sweep at the end of the meet was not enough to beat the Huskies, who won with a score of 186-109. This meet continued to show that the Huskies are a powerful force made up of a combination of both dominant newcomers and veterans.