- Courtesy Sports Information
As the swimming and diving team returns to the Hilltop from winter break, one pre-break trend still looms large. With the Big East Championships looming less than a month away, the women’s team continues to excel, while the men still struggle to find their footing against difficult opponents.
This imbalance played out in the team’s last event of the calendar year. The men were defeated against Villanova, while the women dominated Mansfield.
The men lost to the Wildcats by a score of 175-125. Despite the loss, freshman Paul Quincy provided a bright spot by winning the 500 and 1000 freestyle and attaining a Big East-qualifying time in the 100 backstroke. Joining Quincy, Junior Alex Hanson qualified for the Big East Championships with an impressive showing in the 100 breaststroke. Sophomore Victor Lopez-Cantera also contributed by taking the 100 and 200 butterfly.
The women handled Mansfield by a score of 244-34. They won a staggering 16 events on their way to the thrashing, improving their record at the time to 6-1. Freshman Samantha Kietlinski carried the women by winning the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle and was part of winning the 400 freestyle relay. Megan Harvey and Lindsay Vickroy both qualified for the Big East by swimming in the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle respectively. If crushing Mansfield in swimming wasn’t enough, Angela Pontes won both the one and three meter diving events.
Luckily for the men, they have four meets left to prove their talent and overcome early season woes. They are coming off a very tough loss against American last Friday. While they won five events, victory eluded the team by a mere two points.
The women avenged the men’s loss by handily defeating American 159-83. They rode a wave of freshman swimmers on their way to winning nine of 13 races. Four of the races won were swam by freshmen, including two by Samantha Kietlinski, and one each by Christina Costa and Christina Daquila. The highly touted freshman class has brought excitement to the entire team and hopes of a strong showing in the Big East Championships. It wasn’t only the freshmen that contributed to the recent win. Junior diver Caitlin Karniski had a record setting performance with a score of 270.90, breaking Georgetown’s 3-meter diving record (266.03), set in 2001. Her score of 257.78 broke Georgetown’s 1-meter diving record (255.98), set in 2006.
Another promising sign for the Hoyas is their early season win over Big East foe Seton Hall. The win was the first time they had beaten the Pirates, giving them much needed confidence for the postseason, particularly for a team relying so heavily on freshmen.
The final four regular season meets for both the men and women all come against non-Big East opponents. The men must focus on finishing strong, while the women have higher hopes, as they look to continue their season-long dominance and extend their momentum into the postseason. The Hoyas next meet is at home against Army, on Friday at 5 p.m.
