Men’s team and women’s team both grab second place finishes | The Triangle

Men’s team and women’s team both grab second place finishes

luke-hanner

In their most recent outing, the Drexel University swimming and diving teams traveled to Fairfax, Virginia, to compete in the Patriot Invitational held from Nov. 17 to Nov. 19. In the three-day outing, both Drexel’s men’s team and women’s team took second-place finishes overall.

At the end of the first day of competition, the men’s team found themselves tied for first place with an overall score of 212.

Their top-notch performance was led by freshman swimmer Jason Arthur, who broke a University record in the 200-yard individual medley as he finished with a time of 1:49.78.

The Dragons also grabbed a third place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Freshman diver Anthony Musciano also contributed to the Dragons’ day one score by registering a fourth place finish in the 1-meter dive.

Day two of the competition found the Dragons in the lead. They’d run their score up to a 492, with their closest competition, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, trailing by 13 points with a score of 479.

Their jump ahead was attributed to four separate third-place Dragon finishes: sophomore Ralph Cannarozzi III in the 100-yard breast; freshman Jason Arthur in the 400-yard individual medley; freshman Anthony Musciano in the 3-meter dive; and sophomore Patrick Cobb, freshman Stathis Malamas, sophomore Luke Hanner and senior Ivo Pejovic in the 800-yard freestyle relay.

Unfortunately, on day three, the Dragons didn’t fare as well. Despite the fact that Jason Arthur broke another Dragon record in the 200-yard backstroke, and sophomore Joseph Brown and the relay team took home second and third places respectively in the 200-yard breast and the 400-yard freestyle relay, it wasn’t enough to keep the Dragons in first place. UMBC came back to narrowly take first place with a score of 710; the Dragons’ final score was 704.

On the women’s side, the results were quite similar. Following their first day of competition, the women found themselves in first place, leading the University of North Carolina at Wilmington 267 to 238.

Both the 200-yard freestyle relay and 400-yard medley relay teams saw first place finishes. Sophomore Emily Kosten broke a Drexel record in the 50 free, grabbing a second place finish. Senior Madison Kramer also earned a second-place finish in the 3-meter dive. The Dragons grabbed three additional third-place finishes.

At the end of day 2, the Dragons found themselves tied for first place as UNCW staged a comeback. Four Dragons took first place finishes on Friday: freshman Alexa Kutch in the 100-yard backstroke (also breaking a Drexel record), senior Rachel Bernhardt in the 100-yard breast (another Dragon record), Kosten in the 200-yard freestyle (for a third record in one day), and the 200-yard medley relay team. Their first places were accompanied by four third-place finishes as well.

UNCW took the lead on day three of the competition, resulting in a second place overall finish for the Dragons. First-place finishes for Drexel came from Kutch in the 200-yard backstroke (also setting a meet record) and the 400-yard freestyle relay team.

Next on the Dragons’ schedule is the AT&T Winter National Championships. Drexel will be sending four swimmers to the championship meet, which will be held in Atlanta from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3. Those Dragons that will compete in Atlanta will be Bernhardt, Brown, Kutch and Joe Short.