Sometimes, rest and relaxation are the best hope for curing an ailment. But after rigorous training in Puerto Rico over winter break, the Hoyas showed that sometimes what it takes to get on the road to recovery is some good, old-fashioned hard work.

Despite a pair of losses, the Hoyas again qualified more swimmers for the Big East championships.

At a meet Sunday against No. 20 West Virginia and St. Bonaventure, the Georgetown men’s swimming and diving team emerged from the water with a 167-55 loss to the Mountaineers and a 167-73 defeat at the hand of the Bonnies, falling to 0-8 overall and 0-3 in the Big East. The women dropped a 174-64 decision to West Virginia and lost 168.5-68.5 to St. Bonaventure, plummeting to 1-7 overall and 0-3 in the Big East.

In spite of the two losses for the struggling teams, interim Head Coach Steven Cartwright said he was happy with the Hoyas’ exploits.

“Our performance was absolutely outstanding,” Cartwright said. “We go into every meet trying to win it. But if we come out of that meet with Big East qualifying times and personal-best times, it’s been a successful meet, regardless of what the score says.”

Before Sunday, the Hoyas had not faced a ranked team during Cartwright’s tenure at Georgetown, which began in 2004, but the new coach, who assumed the top leadership spot following the resignation of Head Coach Bethany Bower last month, said the team was not slowed by any anxiety.

“To have the opportunity to go against [top-ranked teams] is an outstanding opportunity, because you can’t be the best unless you swim the best,” Cartwright said. “We went down there as a team and swam up. We had to get over their ranking in the country and use them to swim up to their level, and that’s what we did. And it was consistent across the board. We embraced the challenge.”

Georgetown returned to the Hilltop with 15 personal-best times. On the men’s side, sophomore co-captain Daniel Robinson and freshmen Wes Going, John Deppe and James LiVolsi took first place in the 400-yard freestyle medley event with a time of 3:21.71. Robinson swam to a third-place finish in the 500yd freestyle and a fourth-place finish in 1,000yd freestyle. Going took third in the 200yd backstroke and fellow freshman Brian Koh posted a third-place finish in the 200yd breaststroke.

On the women’s side, freshman Laura Alito tied for second place in the 50yd freestyle with a time of 25.27. Alito also combined with junior Megan Maragakes, freshman Suzanne Waller and sophomore Katelyn O’Connor to win third place in the 400yd freestyle relay, finishing in 3:52.61. The quartet of Alito, fellow freshmen Lindsay Vickroy and Laura Stark and junior Caitlin Colling achieved a fourth-place finish in the 400yd medley in 4:05.67.

The Hoyas gained strength from their shared struggles in Puerto Rico, Cartwright said. “Team camaraderie was our strength,” he said. “The amount of training in Puerto Rico was a bonding experience. As a team you complete hard sets – you go through it together. When you come out of that kind of experience, you are together more as a team – you’re more unified.”

The Blue and Gray will play host to cross-town rival American University on Saturday, Jan. 21 at 1 p.m. Both the men’s and the women’s teams placed ahead of the Eagles in the Potomac Relays in October.