Finishing strong
By: Billy Owens, Assistant Sports Editor
Photo courtesy of towsontigers.com
Towson men’s and women’s swimming and diving squads finished their regular season with two separate invitationals this weekend.
The swimmers competed at the Technotational hosted by Virginia Tech at the Christiansburg Aquatic Center in Christiansburg, Virginia, while the divers competed at the Duke Dog Invite hosted by James Madison in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
For the women at the Technotational, junior Zeynep Balto led the Tigers Friday by placing third out of 18 swimmers in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:00.67. Freshman Lauren Cavanaugh placed eighth in the 200-yard individual medley final.
The next day, sophomore Maddi Mangum won the B final of the 100 fly with a time of 56.47 seconds, finishing ninth overall. Later, Mangum set another personal best by placing fifth in the 100 back final in 57.51 seconds. Junior Caroline Batista and sophomore Katie Larkin went on to finish first and second in the same event’s B final, respectively, and ninth and 10th overall.
The men’s best result at the Technotational was a 14th-overall finish by sophomore Tommy Whitman on Friday, who touched the wall in 22.29 seconds to give him a sixth-place finish in the B final.
Head Coach Jake Shrum was impressed with several of the individual contributions throughout the competition.
“We were really happy with how those people performed down there,” Shrum said.
At the Duke Dog Invite for the women, juniors Emily Wilson and Victoria Zozzaro each finished with two top-10 finishes. On the 1-meter board, Wilson placed sixth with a score of 240.60 points, while Zozzaro placed ninth with a score of 233.75 points. On the 3-meter board, Zozzaro placed sixth with a score of 258.70 points, while Wilson placed eighth with a score of 254.60 points.
“There was a lot going on coming into it, but they did a great job on focusing on themselves,” Shrum said.
Up next for the Tigers is the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Swimming and Diving Championships at the Christiansburg Aquatic Center, which run February 14-17.
“There’s a lot of people we’re super excited to see compete next week,” Shrum said.