Hopkins swimming is busy with back-to-back meets

Hopkins swimming has been busy. On Friday, the team attended a dual meet against the Towson University Tigers and the U.S. Naval Academy Navy Midshipmen in Annapolis. The next day, it hosted its first home meet in over 600 days, competing against the College of William & Mary Tribe. In the dual meet, the men defeated Towson, 144-143, but fell to Navy, 200-93. This is the first time the team has beaten Towson since 2016. The women lost to Towson 211-83, and Navy 196-87.

The Hopkins men opened the meet with a second-place finish in the 200 Medley Relay with an NCAA B time of 1:30.64. The team consisted of seniors Dylan Wachenfeld, Max Chen and Jeff Vitek and sophomore Jay Heymann. Junior Kyle Wu grabbed second in the 200 Free, finishing in 1:40.69, while Wachenfeld swam a career-best 1:42.28 to finish fifth.

The highlight of the meet was Chen, who earned his first win of the night in the 50 Free. He touched in 20.52, which translates to a career-best and NCAA B time. He then followed with his second win, clocking in at 2:00.16 in the 200 Breast. His time was, once again, a career-best, the sixth fastest in program history and an NCAA B time. 

Vitek followed with a close second-place finish in the 100 Fly. He touched in 48.39, just seven-hundredths of a second out of first, and an NCAA B time. Junior Tristan Lin placed fifth in 51.49 and sophomore Justin Limberg placed eighth in 52.16.

For the women, freshman Michelle Liu got the first of her two top-three individual finishes, placing third in the 50 Free with a time of 24.29, finishing seven-hundredths of a second out of second place. She then earned her second third-place finish as she swam a career-best 2:25.57 in the 200 Breast. 

In the last individual event, freshman Taylor Rohovit and senior Elaine Lipkin finished two-three in the 400 individual medley (IM). Rohovit swam a 4:35.34 and Lipkin swam a 4:35.92.

Not even 24 hours later, the Hopkins swim team headed to the Newton White Athletic Center for another meet. The women fell to the Tribe, 172-90, and the men pulled through, winning 201.5-59.5 and placing first in every single event of the meet.

Coach Scott Armstrong addressed the back to back meets and how the team was able to produce fantastic results despite the obvious hurdle standing in their way.

“It was tough back-to-back days of racing and up against some very good competition,” he said. “The thing that stood out to the coaches was how hard everyone worked for the smaller races. Racing for the win is easy, but digging deep to get the third- or fourth-place finish is a special effort!”

A couple events in, Liu snatched second place for the women in the 200 Free, clocking in at 1:53.82. She missed out on first place by 0.16 seconds.

Getting the first win of the night, junior Emerson Davis and Lipkin went one-two in the 200 Fly. Davis led the field with a winning time of 2:08.37, while Lipkin touched in at 2:10.43. Senior Sydney Okubo then picked up the women’s second win of the night in the 200 IM as she touched in 2:10.97.

The Hopkins men came out with a bang, finishing first and third in the 200 Medley Relay. The team of Wachenfeld, Chen and Vitek and graduate student Nat Davenport cruised to a win in 1:32.68, beating the field by almost three seconds. The team of junior Steven Rua, freshman Mitchell List, sophomore Reef Ide and junior Spencer Ryan went for 1:35.81, missing out on second place by 0.18 seconds.

Sophomore Kellen Roddy and junior Alec Caswell placed first and second respectively in the 1000 Free. Roddy won first at 9:27.45 and Caswell came in at 10:03.49.

The Blue Jays then swept the top five in the 200 Free, led by senior Noah Corbitt who went 1:41.22. Corbitt was followed by senior Mitchell Simmons at 1:43.36 and freshman Eric Ji in 1:43.64. Rua then swam a career-best time of 50.97 in the 100 Back.

In another sweep, Chen, Lin and List took the top three respectively in the 100 Breast. Chen swam a 55.08, making the NCAA B cut, and tied his own pool record. Vitek then took first in the 200 Fly, going 1:51.97, followed by freshman Jonik Surprenant in 1:54.56.

Davenport won first in the 50 Free, going 21.02. Continuing the freestyle success, Corbitt went 46.47 in the 100 Free, winning first, while Heymann finished third and swam a career-best of 48.37. Wachenfeld won the 200 Back in 1:52.10.

No surprise here. A 200-Breast sweep of the top-five spots was led by Wu with 2:05.56, Ji with 2:06.79 and Limberg with 2:07.28. Roddy got his second win of the day as he took the top spot in the 500 Free with a career-best time of 4:37.00. 

Vitek and Ide then went one-two in the 100 Fly, Vitek with a swim of 49.79 and Ide finishing in 51.76. Hopkins then claimed first through fifth in the 200 IM. Chen led the way with a time of 1:54.66. Rua followed in second in 1:55.10 while Wu took third in 1:55.93.

The Blue Jays wrapped up the day with first and third place finishes in the 400 Free Relay. Corbitt, Heymann, Davenport and Vitek earned the win with a time of 3:07.64. Graduate student Matt McGough, Simmons, Ji and senior Noah Frassrand took third in 3:11.48.