The Hopkins men’s and women’s swimming teams took on Franklin and Marshall this past weekend. Both squads dominated the Diplomats en route to two victories. Each team took 13 of 14 in their respective meets.
The men’s team started off strong, winning their first six events. The Jays took first through third in the opening 200 Medley Relay. Senior Dylan Coggin, junior Joe Acquavia, senior Nick Schmidt and junior Will Kimball took first with a combined time of 1:35.21. Coming in second were freshman Justin Tang, sophmores Gideon Hou and Greg Kogut, and junior Anthony Lordi. To finish off the podium, sophomore Dylan Davis, junior Alex Polyak and seniors Carter Gisriel and Tyler Woods came in at 1:36.92.
This trend continued in the next five events with the Blue Jays taking first through third. The 1000 Free was led by freshman Bill Gravley with a time of 9:52.07. The next two finishers were freshman Michael McGoldrick and senior Alec Contag with times of 10:05.71 and 10:30.32 respectively. In the 200 free junior Anthony Lordi led the Jays with a time of 1:43.15. Once again the Jays took second and third. This time it was Schmidt and Coggin with times of 1:44.58 and 1:45.44.
The Blue Jays continued their dominant streak throughout the day, culminating in a record-breaking swim from Tang. Tang broke a pool record that had stood for seven years in the 400 IM. Tang posted a time of 4:02.55 that broke the record of 4:08.67 set in 2005. He also came in first by 16 seconds. The dominant performance from the freshman was impressive and the record setting performance was great motivation for the rest of the team.
The Jays started strong and did not let up towards the finish. The Jays took first, second and third in the 400 Relay. This brought the score to 205.5-56.5 in favor of the Blue Jays. The team improved to 2-0 while the Diplomats fell to 0-1.
The women’s team mirrored the performance of the men, winning 13 of 14 races for a convincing victory over the Diplomats.
The Jays opened by taking first and second in the 200 Medley. Juniors Taylor Kitayama, Cristina Cusumano, Kylie Ternes and sophomore Ana Bogdanovski took first with a time of 1:50.43. Following the first place finishers, sophomores Melinda Yau, Maggie Storm, Kylie Holden and freshman Hanna Bunkin came in second with a time of 1:52.85.
The Blue Jays took victories in all but one of the remaining races. Junior Alex Ladd took the 200 free with a time of 1:57.17. The Jays also took first and second in the 50 Back and in the 50 breast. The Jays also took first, second and third in the 50 free. The same trend occurred with the 100 back and breast with Hopkins taking first second and third.
The Blue Jays men’s and women’s teams dominated the Diplomats in almost every single race. Perhaps what was most impressive was how the Jays took multiple positions in most of the races. It illustrated how deep the squad is for the Jays this year. Taking first, second and third in one race is impressive, let alone the ability to take this in almost every race. This will serve as great motivation moving forward throughout the season. The depth of the team will be necessary as they move on to tougher opponents as the season progresses.
The Jays will return to action at the annual Loyola Thomas Murphy Invitational on November 2-3 beginning at 5 p.m.
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