Hoya swimming kicked off their season this past Friday at the Potomac Relays hosted by American University. Georgetown’s men placed second with 324 points, 18 behind first place George Mason. The women’s team came in fourth, with 284 points, 20 points ahead of fifth place Mary Washington.
“I thought we had a great meet for the start of the season,” Head Coach Steven Cartwright said. “The energy was high, the enthusiasm was high and we swam very well for our first meet of the year. Only good things are to come.”
The Hoyas had two individual swimmers, sophomores Laura Alitio and Wes Going, post qualifying times for the Big East Conference tournament with their splits from the 3×100 yard backstroke relays. Three Hoya relay teams swam Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) qualifying times.
“I think in general our teams did really well,” Alito said. “We have a lot of freshmen, and they are really good. It added a lot of depth to our program. Everyone did a really good job and went out and swam as fast as they could.”
Alito and Going led their teams in the 3×100 yard backstroke relays. Alito finished in a time of 1:00.69 minutes and Going put up a time of 55.26 seconds.
Alito also competed in the 200 freestyle relay along with freshman Mallory Kiplinger, sophomore Lindsay Vickroy and senior Caitlin Colling. The quartet finished the relay in 1:42.96, an ECAC qualifying time.
On the men’s side, the team finished first in three relays, the 200 freestyle, 3×100 butterfly and the 1000 freestyle.
They also had a strong showing in the 200-yard medley relay with a team of juniors Goran Bistric and David Ballinger, freshman Thomas Graham and Going finishing in 1:39.93. George Mason, George Washington, Mary Washington and Georgetown competed in both the men’s and women’s events, while the Naval Academy also brought their women’s team to the District.
The team faced the challenge during preseason of developing a team dynamic. The team gained five freshmen on the women’s squad and nine on the men’s team. After this weekend’s meet, however, the team seems to be coming together.
“Last year we were kind of under-manned and didn’t have a great opportunity to do a lot, but this year we have been blessed with a lot of new coaches and swimmers so we are out to get revenge and get some blood,” Going said.
With a home meet at McCarthy Pool this Saturday, Coach Cartwright’s strategy is simple: “Swim faster.”
