The fast pace of Saturday’s meet against Drexel left the Georgetown women tired and defeated. The Hoyas dropped the meet to the Dragons in a 157-139 decision, falling to 2-8 overall and 0-3 in the Big East.

Going it alone without the men allowed for less time between races and made the meet more of a challenge for both sides. The meet was an hour shorter and three events longer than an average dual-season meet.

“This was our first dual meet where it was just women, and all of our meets before this have just been men and women,” interim Head Coach Steven Cartwright said. “The women are used to getting that rest with the men’s events and cheering the men on.” Cartwright added that most of the Hoyas swam four events, some of which were back-to-back.

The quartet of junior Tori Maffey and freshmen Laura Stark, Laura Alito and Lindsay Vickroy won first-place honors in the 200-yard medley relay at 1.52.77 – more than three seconds ahead of Drexel. But the Dragons’ first-place finish in the 400yd freestyle relay turned the tide in Drexel’s favor, although the Hoyas finished the event less than one second behind.

“You have a girl on the end of a freestyle relay that goes 52 point – that’s pretty quick – and our girl . still had a lifetime-best time on that split,” Cartwright said. “So, you can’t ask for anything more. She was just faster.”

Although the team lost, Georgetown swimmers thrived individually.

“They were really excited because it was their senior meet,” junior Caitlin Colling said. “But I think we had the same enthusiasm . Both teams had really high intensity.”

The Hoyas posted 13 season-best times and scores, including 155.10 points for freshman diver Maija Paegle in the 3m event. Colling qualified for the Big East championship in the 50yd and 100yd freestyle events, while freshman Emma Denvir earned a Big East qualifying time after swimming the 200yd breaststroke in 1:12.52.

Those two Big East qualifications brought the entire swimming and diving team’s total to 20 league qualifiers, matching last year’s total. Stark’s second-place finishes in the 200yd and 500yd freestyle events move her to third and fourth, respectively, on Georgetown’s all-time Top 10 Times list.

Georgetown performed strongly in the backstroke, clinching the top three finishes in the 100yd and 200yd events. Freshman Margaret Kimball won the event at 2:14.00, followed by Maffey and freshman Suzanne Waller, who placed second and third, respectively.

Vickroy posted an additional first-place finish in the 100yd freestyle, and senior Laura Sytnyk took first in the 100yd butterfly and second in the 200yd butterfly and 1000yd freestyle events.

The men and women will both return to the water on Friday, Feb. 2, for a final regular-season meet against George Mason at the Aquatic and Fitness Center in Fairfax, Va.

“I’m excited and I’m looking forward to Mason because it’s going to give some of these kids another opportunity to go out and get Big East qualifying times,” Cartwright said. “We swam at this facility in November at the Patriot Invitational, and we came away with 70-some odd season-best times . So I’m very optimistic going into this meet to see what they’re going to be able to do.”