Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Swimming & Diving | GU Shines in Final Home Meet

NATE MOULTON/THE HOYA Freshman Ryan Murphy rounded out a sweep of the top three spots of the 200-yard backstroke race Saturday in McCarthy Pool.
NATE MOULTON/THE HOYA
Freshman Ryan Murphy rounded out a sweep of the top three spots of the 200-yard backstroke race Saturday in McCarthy Pool.

The Georgetown swimming and diving team competed in its first competition in over a month last weekend when it hosted American on Friday and Davidson and George Washington on Saturday. Although Georgetown’s meet schedule was light on meets over winter break, it entered the weekend’s events fresh off of a month of rigorous training, which helped the team secure several record-breaking finishes.

Both teams found success against American on Friday, with the men’s team winning 138-94 and the women’s team winning 139-87. The women’s 400-yard medley relay team, which included freshmen Molly Fitzpatrick and Bailey Page, sophomore Katie Duncalf and junior Erica Fabbri, secured a McCarthy Pool record time of 3:56.89. Duncalf went on to set another pool record in the 200 backstroke, finishing first in 2:05.40.

On Saturday, the women’s team defeated both George Washington (193-106) and Davidson (169-130), and the men’s team defeated George Washington (153-134) but lost to Davidson (174.5-118.5). Senior Lauren Kahan broke both McCarthy Pool and Georgetown records with a score of 285.05 in the women’s 1-meter dive. On the men’s side, sophomore Jared Cooper-Vespa set a new school record in the 1m diving competition with a score of 341.4, and set both pool and school records in the 3m competition with a score of 303.4.

Head Coach Jamie Holder was pleased to see such as strong performance despite the recent break from competition.

“It was good to get back to racing, and it was nice to swim in our pool,” Holder said. “A lot of the pool records are held by other teams, so that was one of the goals that we had this year — to get some pool records and make it more into our domain.”

CLAIRE SOISSON/THE HOYA Sophomore Katie Duncalfl swam for the Blue and Gray at McCarthy Pool last Friday and Saturday against American, George Washington and Davidson.
CLAIRE SOISSON/THE HOYA
Sophomore Katie Duncalfl swam for the Blue and Gray at McCarthy Pool last Friday and Saturday against American, George Washington and Davidson.

Saturday was also senior day for Georgetown. For the seniors, who are members of the first class that Holder recruited as head coach, the experience was surreal — but it was a culmination of four years of hard work and dedication to a common goal.

“It’s been a privilege to be on this team and swim with these people for four years,” senior captain Jamie Gallagher said.

Though some of the strongest competitors on the team are drawing their careers to a close, Holder says that with the Big East championships approaching in February, there are several big opportunities left for the seniors to leave their mark.

“I think they still feel like they’ve got a lot of swimming left, and their biggest meets are still yet to come. … it’s bittersweet,” Holder said.

On Dec. 6, the men’s and women’s teams both recorded sweeping victories over Howard, winning by scores of 162-39 and 136-72, respectively. With last weekend’s events against American and George Washington now in the books, Georgetown is enjoying its status as a top local competitor.

“We’re the top team in D.C. right now, so I think everyone’s on a high, and I think that we’re going to keep carrying that through for the next month,” senior Kim DiNapoli said.

This confidence will be crucial as Georgetown prepares for a heftier schedule in the weeks ahead. The next meet for the Blue and Gray is against Drexel on Friday, en route to facing Big East foe Providence at a meet at Rutgers on Feb. 7 and the looming conference championships in late February.

According to Gallagher, finding future success is all in the details.

“A lot of the really tough training and yardage we’ve done already, so we’re refining things and working on speed and all the small details that we sometimes forget about during the really hard training,” Gallagher said.

Holder echoes the importance of fine-tuning specifics before heading to the Big East championships.
“Because our team is so big and deep, one of the challenges is just figuring out who our scoring team is going to be [at the championships],” Holder said. “I think we have a pretty good handle on that, but we’re looking to see everybody performing well and just try to work on the little things that we can control.”

Georgetown will travel to Philadelphia, Pa., for Friday’s meet against Drexel.

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