Swim teams open up seasons with home victories

By CHRIS MARKHAM

The winningest program in the University of Mary Washington’s history maintained their status quo on Saturday, Oct. 18 when both the men’s and women’s swim teams scored easy victories against Catholic University in the first home action of the season.

After dropping their first dual meets of the year at Washington & Lee University on Friday, Oct. 17, both the men and the women rebounded well with marginal wins the next day in their own Goolrick pool. The men won by a score of 155-107, while the women toppled the Cardinals 165.5-96.5.

On the men’s side, the Eagles saw nine first-place finishes that day. Three-time national champion Alex Anderson got his senior year off to a good start after winning the 50 freestyle at 21.35 and the 100 butterfly at 50.41. The 200-yard medley relay team of senior Misha Yelmgren, freshman Kenyon Huber-Wilker, sophomore Dallas Tarkenton and senior Mike Hudgins also scored a victory with a time of 1:43.39. Yelmgren also won the 100 backstroke with a time of 54.41. Freshman Matt Martinez won a pair of races, one being the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:02.19 and the other being the 200 IM in 2:03.62. Sophomore Tyler Gimple also scored two victories in the 200 freestyle (1:48.84) and the 500 freestyle (4:58.53).

The women had an equally as dominant outing, totaling 11 first-place finishes. Senior Robin Brazier won both the 100 backstroke at 1:02.25 and the 200 backstroke at 2:14.54. The other two Eagles to score two individual victories was sophomore Shannon Coryell in the 50 freestyle (25.63) and 100 freestyle (55.36) and fellow sophomore Anna Corley in the 100 butterfly and the 200 IM. Other individual winners included junior Ashley Walnut in the 1,000 freestyle, freshman Megan Murphy in the 200 freestyle, junior Hannah Hagy in the 100 breaststroke, junior Abby Cox in the 200 butterfly and senior Alex Parrish in the 200 breaststroke.

The swim season is a long and arduous one, running from the beginning of October until the middle of March for some. Saturday’s meet against Catholic was UMW’s third competition already this season. Their first action was at the American University Relays on Oct. 3, and their second was a dual meet against Washington & Lee, where both the men and the women suffered defeats. The Eagles’ matchup with Catholic was the first of what is to be many victories this season as they look to maintain their reputation of excellence.

The swim teams will be in action once again on Friday, Oct. 24 when they travel to the College of William and Mary.