SWIMMING Hoya Women Slay Dragons Men’s Squad Suffers First Loss of the Year By Meredith McCloskey Hoya Staff Writer

The Georgetown swimming and diving team honored its seniors Saturday, as the women’s squad blew away Drexel 147-78, and the men’s squad suffered its first defeat of the season at the hands of the Dragons, 130-111.

Head Coach Beth Bower noticed the strong performance by the 11 Georgetown seniors in their last home meet.

“These guys have been amazing. That says a lot about the strength of this class,” Bower said. “They have been the workhorses of my program and are what’s helping to bring this program up.”

The women’s team dominated the Dragons, placing first in all but three events. Although the senior recognition theme slightly altered the Hoyas’ lineup, Bower admitted that winning was still a clear team priority.

“We thought they were a weak team last year and they beat us by two [points]. We weren’t going to take any chances this year,” Bower said.

After winning the 200-yard medley relay, Georgetown swept the 1,000-yard freestyle. Freshman Diane Foglizzo won in 10:54.13, the first of three victories on the day. Sophomore Erin Kehoe and junior Katie Hayes rounded out the top three with times of 10:57.08 and 11:10.73, respectively. Foglizzo went on to place first in the 200-yard individual medley (2:16.86) and the 100-yard breaststroke (1:11.58).

Senior Amanda Anderson led Georgetown to another victory in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:59.52, followed closely by sophomore Colleen Newman, who took second place with a time of 2:01.30.

Sophomores Juliana Bonilla and Kathryn Harrison and senior Allison Linden grabbed the top three spots in both the 1m and 3m diving events.

Seniors Larkin Postles and co-captain Caragh Moynihan also tallied individual wins. Postles out-touched Dragons sprinter Amanda Donato by less than half a second in the 100-yard freestyle, with a winning time of 57.04. Moynihan had a solid swim in the 100-yard butterfly, placing first with a time of 1:00.39.

Other event-winners for the Hoyas included freshman Michelle Herd in the 100-yard backstroke (1:01.29) and junior Lauren oynihan, who decisively defeated the field in the 500-yard freestyle (5:10.76).

The men’s squad built up a significant lead, but could not stop the Dragons in the second half of the meet.

“We started off the meet very strong,” Bower said. “Then it became a different meet.”

The Hoyas started off by edging out the Dragons in the 200-yard medley relay, and followed with a one-two finish in the 1,000-yard freestyle. Freshman Brendan Griffin took first in 10:03.81, while junior Jim McLaughlin finished second with a time of 10:08.45.

Georgetown persisted with another one-two finish in the 200-yard freestyle. McLaughlin finished second on only minutes rest from the previous event, touched out by less than a second by teammate sophomore Shodai Enters, who placed first in 1:47.37.

Senior Chris Lengle was a triple winner, anchoring the 200-yard medley relay to a 1:38.86 and taking both sprint freestyle events. Lengle swam a 21.76 in the 50-yard and a 47.84 in the 100-yard freestyle.

McLaughlin also went on to win the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:50.98, but the Dragons took second and third, and followed with a one-two performance in the 100-yard breaststroke.

Drexel also dominated the diving events, taking the top two spots on both boards. It all came down to the last event, when the Dragons had a one-point lead over the Hoyas, 103-102.Georgetown failed to secure the first and second-place finishes it needed to win. Instead, the Hoyas took second and fourth, handing them their first defeat of the season, by only 19 points.

The women (8-1) and the men (7-1) will travel to Delaware on Saturday, and the men will return home to face Big East foe Boston College on Sunday before Georgetown finishes off the regular season at the Rutgers Invite Feb. 16. So far Herd, Lengle, Bonilla and Harrison are the only Hoyas to qualify for the Big East Championships Feb. 23-25. Sixteen Hoyas have already made cut times for ECAC championships Feb. 28-Mar. 2, with several more expected to qualify in upcoming meets.