Swimming and diving team falls to rival La Salle | The Triangle

Swimming and diving team falls to rival La Salle

The La Salle University Explorers handed a tough season-opening loss to Drexel’s men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams Oct. 20 at Kirk Pool.

Drexel’s men’s team finished close behind with the final score at 152-140. There were a few bright spots to the day, particularly for freshmen Joel Barryman and Kyle Lukens. They placed first and second, respectively, in the 100-yard backstroke. Their times were 52.32 and 53.11. In the 100-yard butterfly, the Dragons placed in the top three spots with Lukens taking first, sophomore Mike Krohn taking second and freshman Stephen Brown finishing third. The men would take the top three spots again in the 200-yard individual medley. Sophomore Chad Schmidt placed first with a time of 2:02.77, Lukens finished off his impressive weekend finishing in second at 2:05.67, and sophomore Andrew Reimon rounded out the top three with a time of 2:11.04.

For the women, who lost their meet 157-117, senior Lauren Faykes from Cherry Hill, N.J., won the 200-yard butterfly and the 100-yard butterfly. In the 200-yard butterfly she finished with a time of 2:10.35. In the100-yard butterfly she came from behind to take the win. Finishing right behind Faykes in the 100-yard butterfly was senior Steph Uecker. Another first-place finish came from sophomore Kelly Trussell in the 500-yard freestyle, stopping the clock at 5:37:07. Trailing close behind Trussell were freshmen Tina DeRusso in second and Tori Graf in third.

In diving, the Dragons took three of four events. In the women’s 1-meter, freshman Madison Kramer, in her first event as a Dragon, finished first with a judge’s score of 241.5. Sophomore Leah Bank also placed in the event, finishing fifth. In the women’s 3-meter, Kramer finished fourth with a score of 212.2.

On the men’s side of the diving board, freshman David Sanchez took first place in both the men’s 1-meter and 3-meter with scores of 278.4 and 313.5, respectively.

The swimming and diving teams’ next meet starts Oct. 27 at Loyola University Maryland. The Dragons will be up against Loyola, Lafayette College and Seton Hall University. This will be Drexel’s first time at Loyola since 2010.

They’ll look for redemption after rough losses to the Greyhounds and the Pirates two years ago. There were a lot of positives in last weekend’s meet, and the Dragons are hoping to carry that momentum to Loyola for this weekend’s meet.