The Lafayette swim and dive teams were back in action last weekend, as the men beat American 165-97 in a Patriot League quad meet on Saturday after the women lost to Long Island University (LIU) 167-127 on Friday.
The women competed alone against LIU, the final home meet of the season for either team, while both the men and women travelled to Annapolis, Md., for the meet against conference opponents Navy, who hosted the event, as well as Bucknell and American. The men lost to Bucknell and Navy and the women lost to Bucknell, Navy and American.
In men’s action at Navy, sophomore Michael Gorgan swam in four races on the afternoon and placed second in the 200-yard backstroke in a season-best 2:11.49 and fifth in the 100-yard breaststroke in 58.90 seconds.
“I like to visualize my races before hand, and then I try to keep myself as physically prepared as possible,” Gorgan wrote in an email. “Warming up before the race and cooling down after the race is vital.”
Gorgan teamed with freshmen Ethan Keyes and Aaron Tupper, and junior Tanner McFarland for the 200-yard medley relay, finishing seventh with a time of 1:37.01. Gorgan, Tupper, senior Bryce Currie, and sophomore Justin Lloyd came in second place in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:27.34.
“I do think that [event] will be one of our strengths this year,” Gorgan wrote. “We have a very strong 200 freestyle relay this year and I’m pretty confident in our ability to break the school record at the Patriot League Championships.”
After a long week of practice leading up to the meet, Gorgan also added that ice baths were a “saving grace” for his legs.
Lloyd earned a pair of fourth place finishes in the 200 and 500-yard freestyle races, and finished with times of 1:43.65 and 4:42.75, respectively, in those competitions. Freshmen Sean Reilly and Nicholas Sabella placed sixth and eighth, respectively, in the 1000-yard freestyle, while classmate Dylan Phee finished in sixth place in the 100-yard butterfly.
Freshman Jason Wong placed fifth in the 200-yard individual medley, and classmate Jamison Crow placed eighth in the 200-yard butterfly and also teamed up with McFarland, and juniors Ethan Miller and Garrison Mueller en route to a fourth place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
On the women’s side at Navy, Leininger earned an eighth place finish in the 1000-yard freestyle and a twelfth place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke, recording times of 11:07.16 and 2:42.82, respectively. Sophomore Lauren Lapsley finished 10th in the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 11:19.91, and then placed 12th in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:19.23.
Junior Maya Imperial placed 10th and 12th in the 200 and 100-yard butterfly, respectively, while freshman Sydney Perks finished in 11th in the 500-yard freestyle in 5:31.36, the second fastest freshman time in the event.
Sophomore Emily Wilson and freshman Amanda Reeter produced 11th and 12th place finishes in the 200-yard freestyle with times of 2:02.45 and 2:03.94 respectively.
“Overall, despite having a nighttime meet on Friday and then waking up at 6 a.m. to go to Navy the next morning, I think our girls really showed up and did the best they could,” junior Emma Piascik said.
Against LIU, Perks scored nine points with a win in the 1000-yard freestyle, recording a time of 10:44.79. Leininger won both 100 and 200-yard freestyle with times of 55.37 and 1:59.03, respectively, scoring nine points in each event.
“Sydney and Tara are both powerhouse swimmers, they’re always showing up,” Piascik said. “It’s really exciting to have that talent on the team and have those people to look up to, even though they are younger. We don’t have a hierarchy in age, so it is very much based on ability. You can be a freshman like Sydney and really succeed and have people look up to you. It’s a big morale boost to have that talent on the team and know that our program can produce that.”
Leininger, Wilson, and sophomores Samantha Talecki and Emily Richter scored four points with their second place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay, timing in at 3:44.13.
In diving action, senior Isabella Capachietti took first place in one meter diving with a score of 183.75, and sophomore Eden Ephraim earned first place in three meter diving with a score of 154.42.
Up next for Lafayette is a dual meet at rival Lehigh next Friday, November 22nd at 6 p.m.