This post was written by Hatchet reporter Peter Hoegler.
The score was not an indicator of how dominant George Washington Swimming was on Friday night.
Both men’s and women’s swimming teams hope won handily, failing to relinquish a single first, second, or third finish to visiting foe Howard University. The officials stopped awarding GW place points with eleven events remaining. In the end, the men’s finished with a 92-79 victory while the women’s finished with a 86-72 win.
“Each meet is a stepping stone for our end result,” men’s head coach Dan Rhinehart said. “This sets us up to be in a really good place.”
After dropping two dual meets to Georgetown and Atlantic 10 opponent Davidson last weekend, GW came out off the blocks with some fire by sweeping the 200-yard medley relay. The first few races set the tone for the rest of the meet and the Colonials never looked back.
Senior Morgan Zebley swam first place times in all three of her events, winning the 100-yard freestyle in 54.20, the 200-yard medley relay with juniors Maggie Hofstadter and Lauren Steagall and sophomore Carly Whitmer and the 200-free relay with the senior squad of Janica Lee, Brittany Liedholm and Bianca Valencia.
Whitmer had another first place finish in the 200-individual medley with a time of 2:15.18 and Lee topped the 200-free in 1:58.14, while freshman Hannah Kopydlowski won the 50-free in 24.83 and the 100-backstroke in 1:01.36.
The results kept coming with junior Madison Reinker’s win in the 1000-free, finishing in 10:43.50, Valencia’s time of 58.53 to win the 100-butterfly, freshman Abigail Fusco’s first place in the 500-free at 5:16.36 and sophomore Lauren Law’s win in the 100-breast at 1:10.35.
Senior Goran Koprivnjak has been the leading force of the men’s team, consistently placing in the top five against top opponents. On the women’s side, Whitmer and Lee have already been the leaders in the pool. But in Friday’s meet, underrated swimmers such as Adam Drury, Ben Fitch and Bogdan Balteanu were able to showcase their talent for the men.
Koprivnjak still tallied two first place finishes, one in the 50-free with a time of 21.71 and one in the 200-free relay at 1:30.53 along with Baltenau, freshman Jarvus Pennington and Drury.
Baltenau was part of a second winning relay team in the 200-medley relay along with sophomore Ryan O’Malley, senior Oliver Keegan and freshman Aneil Srivastava in 1:39.54.
Fitch won the 100-free with a 48.78 and classmate Liam Huffman won both the 500- and 100- free in 4:42.29 and 9:51.13 in the longer distances. Freshman Connor Hart took the 200-free with a 1:46.67, while freshman Gustav Hokfelt had perhaps the most impressive day for a rookie with top placement in the 100-butterfly and 100-backstroke with times of 54.77 and 53.76, respectively.
Senior Adam Rabe also had a two-win day with first place in the 200-yard individual medley in 2:00.28 and the 100-breaststroke in 59.66.
“Since this is our second to last meet until Conference, which is a month away, we have to stay sharp and keep momentum going into A-10s,” Balteanu said. “We still have things to work on, and every meet gives us an opportunity to do that.”
Both men’s and women’s swimming teams takes on George Mason next Saturday on senior day before turning full focus to the championships which begin Feb. 18.
“A win like this helps get us prepared and mentally for A-10’s,” Rhinehart said. “We will have a challenge against George Mason.”
