UMW Swimming Competes at Gettysburg Invitation

By EVAN HICKS

In their last meet of the semester, the men’s and women’s swim teams competed at the Gettysburg Invitational Swim Meet on Dec. 2nd and 3rd. While the team did not win the meet, many members of the team finished with excellent results.

Both the men’s and women’s teams finished third at the Invitational, while Johns Hopkins won in both categories. Coach Abby Brethauer was especially enthusiastic about the teams’ opportunity to race against multiple Division I schools.

“For us to have the opportunity to race Hopkins, Gettysburg, and Dickinson is awesome, because they have so many talented athletes [all three teams were at NCAAs last year and Hopkins is a top 10 team in the country]… It is always exciting to have people putting up great swims in December as it sets them up well for second semester and our Conference championship,” Brethauer said. The men’s team’s top performer at the meet was freshman Alex Anderson, who took third in the 200 breaststroke (2:10.31), won in the 400 IM (4:03.91), and set a pool record during his win. Also of note were senior Billy Norfolk in the 200 butterfly (2nd – 1:51.3), junior Andrew Garafolo (2nd), freshman Eric Phung (3rd), and junior Jack McHugh (4th) in the 1650 freestyle; the 200 medley relay (4th – 1:34.55); Norfolk also got 3rd in the 100 butterfly (50.84); and 4th in the 400 medley relay (3:33.11).

The meet lasted two days and required the team to spend the night at a hotel, before returning to the pool on the second day for 16 hours. Despite the long hours and tough competition, the team stayed positive.

When Anderson was asked if there were any areas that the team had needed to improve in, he responded, “No, I actually feel like we did pretty well at this meet.

Most everyone stepped up to the plate. The majority of the team got best times for the season. It was a good meet.”

With a record-breaking win, third place finish, and another sixth place finish, Anderson attributed his excellent performance to his team’s support.

“Coach Abby and the team, they all encouraged me to work harder and our training is great, Anderson said.”

The women’s team had multiple finishes in the top four from junior Lindsay Ancellotti (4th in the 100 butterfly – 1:00.12), in the 100 backstroke (4th – 1:00.59), the 800 free relay (4th – 8:02.21), freshman Robin Brazier (4th in the 200 backstroke – 2:12.37), sophomore Kristen Callahan (3rd in the 400 IM – 4:46.28), senior Megan DeSmit (2nd in the 100 breaststroke – 1:08.08), sophomore Amber Kerico in the 200 breaststroke (4th – 2:30.78), sophomore Allison Martin (2nd in the 200 butterfly – 2:11.71), the 400 freestyle relay (4th – 3:43.99), the 200 medley relay (3rd – 1:50.92), and Allison Martin (3rd – 2:14.14) and Robin Brazier (4th – 2:14.57) in the 200 IM, and the 400 medley relay (3rd – 4:06.56).
The Eagles’ next meet with take place on Jan. 13 at St. Mary’s College against Frostburg State at 3 p.m.