Men’s and women’s swim and dive lost their season opener against Virginia Tech this weekend.
The men’s team lost 214-86, while the women’s team lost 191-109 over Friday and Saturday’s competition, their first since winning the Atlantic-10 Championship last season. Swimming & Diving Head Coach Brian Thomas said he’s optimistic for the season since he had minimal expectations coming into this first meet because he wanted to observe the new freshmen entering the team.
“I had minimal expectations,” Thomas said. “The way I was looking at it is that it’s better than what we would otherwise be doing on a Saturday for a workout, so a good opportunity to learn about our group, learn a little bit more about first-year swimmers and just kind of get eyes on them.”
The women’s squad welcomes a new batch of freshmen, including Veronica Fyfe, Riley Kudlac, Breuklynn Harris, Colleen MacWilliams, Zoe Schneider and Katie Snyder. Graduate students Yulia Groysman and Olivia Tighe also joined the team. Kudlac placed third in the 100-yard freestyle event with a time of 53.47 seconds, earning her a spot on the podium at her first meet at the Smith Center.
For the dive section of the women’s meet, junior Dara Reyblat started out strong, winning gold in both the one-meter dive with a final score of 261.60 and the three-meter with a final score of 264.08. Last season, Reyblat scored a career-best of 270.40 in the A-10 Championships for the one-meter event, placing her at third. Fyfe, who also competed in the three-meter dive, had a strong performance and finished third with a score of 258.60.
“Dara sweeping both boards was not expected against a team like Virginia Tech,” Thomas said. “Their women are ranked in the top 20.”
Junior Moriah Freitas, who was a finalist for the 100-yard butterfly in the A-10 Championship last year, won the same event this weekend with a time of 57.48 seconds.
Freshmen Michael Wood, Holden Wheeler, Daniel Choi, Justin Dostal, Cameron Rodgers, Ben Sosnowski and Ben Bradley debuted as Revs for the first time. Wood earned bronze on the three-meter board, scoring 298.95, while Wheeler attained 287.25 and Bradley gained 266.33, earning them fourth and fifth, respectively.
In the men’s event, redshirt senior Djurdje Matic swam it in 48.63 seconds, securing first place in the 100-yard butterfly, a race he won at the A-10 Championships last year.
Junior Connor Rodgers placed first in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:51.37 minutes and third in the 200-yard individual medley at 1:53.69 minutes. His performance has been improving his time over a couple of months from the off-season, Thomas said.
“A clear step ahead of where he was last year,” Thomas said. Last year, Rodgers broke the A-10 record in both the 200-yard butterfly final with a time of 1:44.47 minutes and the 400-yard individual medley final at 3:46.25 minutes.
Thomas said watching the freshmen compete this early in the season has been a positive experience for him to continue to watch them improve in and out of the water.
“It’s a very important meet to them, more so than it is to us, being their first meet at home,” Thomas said, “And we had several that performed great. We had several that probably, maybe let the moment get to them a little bit. And you know, they have been working extremely hard.”
The Revolutionaries will face off against Navy on the road on Oct. 21 at 10 a.m.
