Last weekend the Men's and Women's swimming teams both earned two more victories in the Thomas Murphy Invitational at Loyola. Both teams earned wins over Loyola and Saint Peter's. The men's team improves to 4-1 after the weekend and the women's team to 3-1.
J.P. Balfour explains "The meet this weekend was a great success, not in the times we swam necessarily, but in the way that we got up and raced despite how hard the training has been in the week before."
The women's team had big victories over both teams. They beat Loyola 235-95 and were victorious over Saint Peter's with the final score of 250-44.
Freshman Nontawan Benja-Athon and senior captain Krissy Brinsley both won four events each as the big winners for the Blue Jays. Benja Athon took the 400 yard individual medley, the 100 yard breaststoke, the 200 yard breaststroke and the 200 yard individual medley. Brinsley won the 50 yard freestyle, the 200 yard breaststroke, the 100 yard freestyle and the 100 yard breaststroke.
Junior Stephanie Harbeson won three events including the 1650 yard freestyle, the 500 yard freestyle and the 200 yard freestyle. Sophomore Megan Rudinsky also earned a first place finish in the 100 yard butterfly.
On the men's side, there were many individual winners as they beat Loyola 181-129 and Saint Peter's with the score of 250-44. Freshman Joseph Chung took first place in the 50- yard freestyle. Junior Scott Armstrong took the 1650 yard freestyle and Jon Kleinman won the 500-yard freestyle.
Commenting on his win Joe Chung said, "Overall, the 50-yard freestyle felt pretty good although I still need to work on refining my technique. It is so much fun swimming with this team. I have neither seen nor could I imagine a more strongly-bonded team of dedicated swimmers guided by Hopkins' unrelenting swim coaches."
More wins came from freshman J.P. Balfour in the 200-yard backstroke, junior David Lofthus who won the 100-yard freestyle, and junior Justin Brannock who took the 200-yard freestyle.
Brannock commented, "The feeling of team-closeness seems like it is getting stronger every time we have a new meet. Everybody was cheering for each other at the meet, and there was overwhelming support from the side of the pool during every race. We are right on track to achieve the goals we set early in the season."
This week both teams will be training hard to prepare for next weekend's meet at Carnegie Mellon University.
