Judges split games in tough weekend battle
The men and women’s swimming and diving team split a weekend matchup with Clark University in their final tune-up before the University Athletic Association Championships later this week. The men took a 160-132 victory while the women fell by a 147-144 defeat at the Senior Day meet. Fallon Bushee ’16 took home a pair of individual wins for the women in the 100-and 200-yard breaststroke while the men took 10 of the 16 events to claim their second-straight victory.
Men’s squad (160 points)
Edan Zitelny ’17 paced the Judges with three wins in the victory, beginning his day with a six-second victory in the 200-yard butterfly, touching the wall at 2:04.81. Zitelny took the top spot in the 200-yard backstroke as well, during which the Judges swept the podium. His time of 2:15.19 was just over a second ahead of Taku Harada ’18 and eight seconds ahead of David Lazarovich ’16, who finished the race in 2:13.07. Zitelny capped his day with a win in the 200-yard individual medley in 2:04.82, the second race of the day the Judges swept. Zach Diamond ’18 grabbed second in 2:05.66, while Lazarovich earned a hard-earned third-place finish in 2:09.28.
The Judges picked up a team victory in the 200-yard medley relay, as the quartet of Eb Weber ’17, Rich Avrutsky ’18, Zitelny and Evan Thom ’18 managed a 1:43.55 finish to claim the win.
Diamond earned a pair of wins on the day in the 1000-yard freestyle and the 100-yard freestyle, swimming to times of 10:18.48 and 51.41 seconds, respectively. Cameron Braz ’17 and Weber also walked away with multiple victories, as Braz took the 200-yard freestyle in 1:48.80 and the 50-yard freestyle in 23.04 seconds. Weber won the 100-yard freestyle in 56.08 seconds and the 100-yard backstroke in 58.20 seconds.
The men move to an improved 2-8-1 with the victory.
Women’s squad (144 points)
Bushee swam to wins in the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke races, taking the former in 1:16.48 and the latter in 2:42.54. Her time in the 100-yard breaststroke was a moment ahead of Clark junior Niki Lew, who touched the wall at the 1:16.69 mark, and just a second behind her top time of 1:15.19.
Kylie Herman ’19 and Joanna Murphy ’17 took the top two spots in the 200-yard butterfly, stopping the timer at 2:21.37 and 2:23.76, respectively. Amy Sheinhait ’18 won the 100-yard freestyle race in 57.83 seconds while Sherry Tu ’18 took the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:04.83.
The Judges’ quartet of Sheinhait, Bushee, Tu and Herman claimed a win in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:59.07, 1.69 seconds ahead of the Clark side.
Theresa Gaffney ’16 took third place in the 1000-yard freestyle race, swimming to a time of 12:11.59 in the final home meet of her career, while Murphy set a season-best time in the race by taking second place with an 11:01.86 finish.
The women had a three-match winning streak stopped in the loss, moving them to 4-9 before the UAA Championships commence.
The UAA Championships are set to begin tomorrow and will last through Saturday, hosted by the University of Rochester.
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