The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams competed in the first day of the Atlantic-10 Swimming and Diving Championships on Feb. 17 in Geneva, Ohio.
The event began with the Women’s 200-yard medley relay. Sophomore Kirby Riley, junior Morgan Parkinson, junior Olivia Garreyy and sophomore Mina Glenesk brought in a time of 1:43.92, earning them eighth place and 22 points. This beat their time in their last meet, which was 1:45.65. Glenesk swam the anchor and fastest leg of her team with a time of 23.69. This finish put the women at eighth place out of 11 teams.
The men followed suit with the same race. Seniors Shane Cano, Jack Kane, Brendan Hulseman and freshman Brian North secured a solid fourth-place finish with a time of 1:30.20, giving them 30 points. They edged just past their previous time of 1:31.95.
The diving team took a crack at the competition with the 1 meter dive, the third event of the day. Although none of SLU’s divers made it to the championship finals, they slotted into the 13th and 15th spots to put their team in sixth place out of eight teams. Senior Nick Livasy scored a 184.10 to earn four points, and sophomore Karl Schaenzer scored a 146.60 to earn two points for the Billikens.
The fourth event returned to the women in a longer race, the 800-yard freestyle relay. SLU swam in the middle of the pack with a sixth-place finish. The team of senior Abby King, Glenesk, sophomore Elaine Mahon and junior Alexa Gross completed the race in 7:27.56, just four hundreths of a second before St. Bonaventure, who finished in seventh. The team as a whole shattered their previous time by almost eleven seconds. They tallied 26 points to move into seventh place overall. The women are right on George Washington’s heels; the Colonials (50 points) have the upper hand over the Billikens by two points.
The last event of the day was the men’s 800-yard freestyle relay. SLU clearly saved their best for last as they finished in second place, just three tenths of a second behind the first place team, UMass. Sophomore Ryan McCoy started the team off strong, and Hulseman, junior Nick Jessee and senior Patrick Schrauth fed off his momentum to stay consistent throughout the entirety of the race. They finished with a time of 6:32.63 and racked up 34 points for their team.
At the end of the day, the men’s team sat at the number four spot with 70 points. However, they are still 28 points behind La Salle and St. Bonaventure, who are tied for second place.
On the women’s side, Richmond has a four-point lead at the end of day one with 74 points, and UMass is dominating the men’s bracket with a 17-point lead with 115 points.
The competition continues over the next three days. Only two of 15 sessions were completed after one day in the water, so SLU has plenty of time to improve their positions and continue their hard work and fight for an A-10 Championship title.
