Swimming and diving had their first victory of the season Saturday, after opening the academic year with a loss against Virginia Tech last month.
Swimming and diving swept a quad meet against the University of North Carolina Wilmington, the University of Delaware and William & Mary at the Hampton Aquaplex. Against Virginia Tech, GW found its greatest success on the diving board, with divers placing first and second in the women’s 3-meter.
In their first meet, junior Olivia Paquette won the event with a score of 304.28, and senior Dara Reyblat finished next best with a score 278.78. Paquette placed second in the 1-meter dive earlier in the competition with a score of 267.00.
“We’ve got some new dives in our list, so we’re just kind of taking it as it is,” Head Diving Coach Christopher Lane said. “And I was really happy with overall how we did.”
After finishing last in the men’s 1-meter dive, sophomore diver Ben Bradley bounced back, finishing fourth in the 3-meter dive with a score of 314.55, and scoring 2 points for the team. He said the early struggles were partially due to him trying out new dives.
“My first event didn’t go as well as I would have liked, but I think having the mindset of putting that into your back pocket and moving on to the next event was important for me,” Bradley said.
The Revolutionaries introduced 10 new swimmers to the team this summer, after 11 swimmers transferred and graduated.
“It’s always sad to have teammates leave, but like bringing in new people and showing them the culture and like the beautiful things about GW is very exciting,” Senior Molly Smyers said.
Last weekend, both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving fell to Virginia Tech in their first meet under new swimming Head Coach Chico Rego, 184-112 and 191-107, respectively.
Freshman Shae Stratton took home a trio of second-place finishes across the two meets. At Virginia Tech, he finished second in the 100-meter and 200-meter backstroke, losing the latter by just .11 seconds in a time of 1:50.84. He also finished second in the 200-meter backstroke at this weekend’s quad, improving his time to a 1:47.49.
Sophomore Daniel Choi won the men’s 1000-meter freestyle by over 12 seconds in both meets with a time of 9:35.75 at Virginia Tech and improving to a 9:15.60 finish at the quad meet.
Junior Ava Topolewski also missed taking home the crown in the 1000-meter freestyle by under a second, swimming 10:16.48 to the Hokies’ Kate Anderson who won in a time of 10:15.81. Last year, Topolewski set a new conference record in the 1650-meter freestyle: 16:08.48.
Senior Connor Rodgers won the 200-meter butterfly in a time of 1:50.68 and in the 200-meter individual medley with a time of 1:52.48. Senior Moriah Freitas was victorious in the 200-meter butterfly, hitting the wall first in a time of 2:05.55. Sophomore Colleen MacWilliams won the 200-meter individual medley in a time of 2:06.75. Smyers finished second in the event.
Both men’s and women’s swimming and diving were voted as the top team in their respective A-10 preseason polls. The men’s team has won the last four A-10 championships, while the women have won the last three.
The Virginia Tech men’s team was ranked 10th in the nation and the women 22nd, according to the CSCAA preseason poll.
“Polls are nice, but they don’t mean anything,” Lane said. “We got to show up and show out, period.”
The 2025 A-10 championships will be held in the same venue in February, where the Revolutionaries will look for their fourth women’s conference championship and fifth men’s conference championship in a row.
Rego said he thinks A-10 championships should be a standard for GW to win, given their dominance over the past few years. He said now that they have established themselves in the conference he wants to see them qualify for more competitive meets by continuing to put up good times.
Rego said the schedule is set up to challenge the Revolutionaries to swim against schools in power-four conferences, like their first meet against Virginia Tech, to prepare them for the postseason. The Revs will continue their season after a nearly monthlong break, with a meet against Navy in Annapolis, Maryland, on Nov. 2.
