Swimming & Diving: School Records Broken on Both Teams

By: Chris Wells, Staff Writer

At a dual meet at Georgetown University, both the men’s and the women’s teams broke school records.

On the men’s side, the team of senior Matt Hans, junior Nick Breschi, freshmen Jack Saunderson and Will Dougherty, set a school record after winning the 400-yard freestyle relay event with a time of 2:46.02.

The previous school record for that event was 3:02.01.

The women’s team of junior Melissa Toy, freshmen Kara Powell, Ashley Illenye and Ryan Ulrich, set a school record in the 400-yard freestyle relay event too, winning the event with a time of 3:10.11.

The previous record for that event was 3:20.96. Head Coach Pat Mead was quick to praise his breakout competitors.

“Standout performances for the men were Zachary Brech and Matt Hans,” Mead said. “For the women Ryan Ulrich and Ashley Illenye turned in outstanding performances.”

The men’s team won their first dual meet of the season, but the women weren’t as fortunate as they dropped to 0-2.

“The men were great at getting to the wall first which resulted in a win over a very good Georgetown team,” Mead said. “The women fell a little short but did an outstanding job of being tough and racing.”

Highlighting the dual meet were two record-breaking performances by both Tiger teams.

Illenye was victorious in two more events, and won the 1000-yard freestyle (10:25.55) and the 500-yard freestyle event with a time of 5:08.55.

In previous weeks, Mead was pushing to see better performances from his freshmen class, and the young Tigers heard him loud and clear.

Freshmen led the way as Will Dougherty won the 1000-yard freestyle event with a time of 9:38.03 with teammates Andrew Snyder (4th, 10:03.20), Aaron Magazine (5th, 10:08.14) and Ben Johnston (6th, 10:09.12).

“Overall our freshmen did a great job today,” Coach Mead said.

The young Tigers weren’t the only ones to impress during the meet. Seniors Matt McKenney and Matt Hans tied for first place in the 100-yard backstroke event with a time of 53.59.

Hans (51.02) got the best of McKenney (51.29) this time winning the 100-yard butterfly event.

McKenney’s day didn’t end there as he won the 50-yard freestyle event with a time of 21.84 followed closely by fellow senior Zach Brech (22.04) in second place.

Towson gets a couple of weeks to prepare for its next competition of the season at George Mason University with CAA rival Drexel, for a two-day meet from Oct. 30-31.           

“Both teams did great today,” Mead said. “I’m very proud of them.”

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