The swimming and diving team traveled to Annapolis, Maryland to take on American, Bucknell and Navy in a quad meet on Saturday at Navy’s Lejeune Hall.
Both the men (170-122) and women (151-144) triumphed over American but fell to Bucknell (217-81 men, 226-74 women) and Navy (159-120 men, 159-124 women).
For the individual women’s events, sophomore Isabella Van Ess notched an impressive first-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke for the second meet in a row.
Van Ess attributed her notable performance, as well as the team’s overall performance, to proper nutrition and effective overall preparation.
“Eating well and making sure we’re all hydrated every night before a meet has really helped us,” Van Ess said. “For my stroke group, we will eat different meals together, such as a pasta dinner. Just making sure that we’re all ready for the meet and checking in to see if we have any concerns is key to helping us succeed.”
For the men, juniors Peter Kawash and Andrew Campbell each achieved a second-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke and 400-yard IM, respectively. Junior Avery Letourneau placed third in the 100-yard fly.
In the diving competition, freshman Landon Orth placed sixth in the one-meter dive, breaking the school record with a score of 293.85. Additionally, he mustered a sixth-place finish in the three-meter with a 278.20 finish.
For the women, junior Shaylee Daniels led the way with 11th and 12th-place finishes.
In relays, both the women and men earned second-place finishes in the 200-yard freestyle. Freshmen Sarah Newman, Natalie Johnson and Caroline Schenck and junior Maggie Ivie made up the women’s relay team; for the men, juniors Timothy Jimenez and Kawash, sophomore Tommy Weber and freshman Alexander Reihl swam.
The Leopards may not have beaten all the teams they competed against but Kawash explained that the team’s main goal was to trounce American, which it did successfully.
“Our main goal was to beat American and then to just kind of have some good competition [with] Bucknell and Navy,” Kawash said. “Being able to race their guys was huge because they’re pretty good teams … It is this kind of competition that will help us get better.”
Van Ess cited the team’s atmosphere as contributing to its win over American.
“I think something that you don’t really see on the timesheet is how much we support each other as a team,” Van Ess said. “We are constantly cheering on the sidelines, wishing each other good luck and high-fiving each other behind the blocks. I think those things are very beneficial in making sure that we are keeping our spirits up.”
The Maroon and White will head into battle once again next Friday as they make the short journey over to Bethlehem to take on Patriot League rival Lehigh.