After almost two months without regular meet competition, the Georgetown men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams returned to McCarthy Pool on Saturday afternoon to host hometown rivals The George Washington University and American University.
The meet had added meaning as the Hoyas celebrated their 11 graduating seniors for Senior Day that afternoon. Although GWU beat both of its D.C. rivals, Georgetown went on to also defeat a talented American team in the matchup.
Despite the loss to George Washington, Head Coach Jack Leavitt was satisfied by the team’s performance.
“Coming off of a training trip where we do the most demanding work of the season, it’s hard to expect them to come back and swim fast, but this was one of the best dual meets we’ve had all year,” Leavitt said in an interview with The Hoya.
In the first event of the meet, the 200-yard medley relay team consisting of senior Laine Morgan, sophomores Alexandra Rieker and Belinda Donohoe and freshman Grace Chen secured the Hoyas’ first victory. The relay team finished in 26.39 seconds, a full second ahead of the runner-up GWU team.
Donohoe also finished in first place for both the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle. Junior Cristina Barrett came away with a victory in the 1000 freestyle, while Chen topped the 100 backstroke with a time of 28.72.
On the women’s diving side, Georgetown claimed the four highest scores in the 1-meter event, with junior Margaret Barnhorst in first. Junior Elizabeth Miller and sophomores Riley Fujioka and Naomi Peng followed directly after. Barnhorst, Miller and Fujioka swept the podium in the 3-meter event as well, led again by Barnhorst with a final score of 289.15.
The men’s swimming team finished the meet with seven individual victories. Freshman Michael Wheeler took first in the 1000 freestyle, winning the event narrowly by 0.07 seconds. Freshman Brett Sherman then won the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle, the latter of which Wheeler followed closely in second place. Sophomore Drew Carbone claimed victories in both the 100 and 200 backstroke, and junior Terry Johnson won the 200 butterfly. In the 200 breaststroke, freshman Carlson Temple reached the wall first, over a second faster than the competition.
Leavitt says the team will be using upcoming practice time and meets to prepare for the Big East Championships in February.
“Big East is all we’re focusing on at this point, so everything we do at practice is geared towards that, and meets will be about prepping for races that we’re going to be doing there,” Leavitt said.
The Hoyas will travel to Philadelphia next weekend for a dual meet at Drexel University on Jan. 19. The meet will be the first of two before the Big East Championships in February.
