The men’s swimming and diving team finished third and the women’s team finished fourth at a quad match against American, Army, Navy and Bucknell this past Saturday in Lewisburg, Pa.
Leading the way on the men’s side was sophomore Peter Kawash, who placed third out of five in the men’s 100-yard backstroke (51.06), fifth out of 14 in the men’s 200-yard IM (1:54.96) and sixth out of 13 in the men’s 200-yard backstroke (1:54.23).
In addition, freshman Peter Curtis placed fourth out of seven in the men’s three-meter dive with a score of 226.05.
The men’s 200-yard medley, which included Kawash, sophomores Tim Jimenez and Avery LeTourneau, as well as senior Aaron Tupper finished sixth out of 13 groups (1:34.23). The men also placed fifth out of eight in the 200-yard freestyle relay, with a team of Jimenez, LeTourneau, freshman Daniel Hayes and senior Jamison Crow notching a time of 1:28.46.
Jimenez said that swimming can be a very individual sport but that the team is central to his own success.
“I just want to play a role, and for our team, it’s a lot of ‘team before ourselves.’ We won’t get too far unless we’re all together reaching for the same goal,” Jimenez said.
He added that hearing his teammates cheer him on during competitions is motivating.
“It’s really hard to hear people in the water sometimes, but we do a lot of hand motions … As much as people don’t think it would matter, it does matter. Sometimes, if you hear somebody, you hear coach whistle, or you hear a teammate, you’re like ‘Oh, I know I have to push it,'” Jimenez said.
On the women’s side, sophomore Maggie Ivie placed seventh out of 16 in the women’s 100-yard freestyle (53.51). Freshman Ella Luttrell placed seventh out of 12 in the women’s 200-yard fly (2:11.26).
The women’s 200-yard medley relay team came in eighth out of 12 (1:51.47), a foursome that included Ivie, Luttrell, freshmen Isabella Van Ess and sophomore Katie Blaisure.
Junior IM specialist Anya Pelshaw noted how swimming in events that she feels weaker in can be beneficial.
“I’m an IM’er, which means that I swim every stroke, and backstroke is my worst stroke, which I did this meet. So it was kind of just seeing, ‘Where’s that at?’ and ‘How much do I need to improve?’ And that can help improve my IM overall.”
Navy and Bucknell took first and second, respectively, for both the men and women’s competitions over the weekend.
Navy has won the last 18 Patriot League Championships for the men and the last 10 for the women, making them a league powerhouse. Pelshaw said that the Leopards swam next to Navy during the meet, which allowed them to measure their own progress.
Jimenez added that this meet was good preparation for the team’s Leopard Cup match against Lehigh next Friday, Nov. 18 at 6 p.m. in Weinstein Natatorium.
“We’ve been training hard all week, and prior to coming to the meet we all wanted to get our races down, and understand how to swim our races so that we’re ready for two weeks because Lehigh is coming up,” he said. “We’re really excited for that.”
