University of Connecticut women’s swim team extended their winning streak this Halloween weekend, with their first home meet of the season, beating the University of Rhode Island Rams with a score of 159-127, dominating events one through eleven.
Their dominance started early with the Huskies, taking first and second place in the 400-yard medley relay. The first-place relay team, consisting of sophomore Kiersten O’Connor, junior Sydney Perkins, freshman Grier Gordon and junior Jessica Sheng, finished in an impressive 3:48.63, 11.16 seconds ahead of the URI team in third. Sheng didn’t just conquer in the relay, she also got first in the 100-yard free and 100-yard back, which made her the second-highest overall scorer of the meet.
In the second event, the 1000-yard free, freshman Cara McDonald finished with a time of 10:25.80, a whole 29.75 seconds before her URI competitor, freshman Addison Markoja and 21.16 seconds before her teammate, junior Jordan Ricciotti. That wasn’t McDonald’s only impressive finish of the day; she also went on to get first in the 200-yard fly with a score of 2:08.45. These performances helped McDonald be the third-highest overall scorer of the day.
Freshman Kate Van Ryn got two personal best scores, in the 200-yard free with a score of 1:51.92 that got her first place, and the 200-yard back with a score of 2:05.01. She also got another first-place finish in the 50-yard free with a remarkable score of 24.11. Van Ryn was the highest overall scorer of the day, bringing in 22 points to add to the Huskies’ final score.
The Rams didn’t give up, though, and gave it their best effort and swept events 12-16. Sophomore Molly Beckwith had an impressive time of 56.86 in the 100-yard fly, just barely beating UConn’s senior Maggie Rhodes, who had a time of 56.97, a season’s best for her. Beckwith was the Rams’ highest overall scorer of the day, having a season’s best score in the 200-yard free, where she finished second, helping her 200-yard free relay team get first by finishing off the relay in 24.12 seconds, and her 400-yard medley relay team came in third.
The Rams also had great success in 1-meter diving. Senior Anna Petke shone with a score of 269.63. She finished 8.33 points ahead of UConn star senior Kate Cooper, who took first place in the 3-meter diving with a score of 256.35.
Even with the Rams’ high scores toward the end of the meet, the Huskies had already racked up too many points, and the Rams couldn’t cut their deficit.
The Huskies will look to extend their winning streak this coming weekend as they hit the road to compete against Boston College on Friday at 4 p.m.