John Reid/Atlantic 10

A-10 Swimming & Diving Championships: Day Two Update from SPIRE Institute

2/16/2023 9:30:07 PM

GENEVA, Ohio – The second day of the 2023 Atlantic 10 Swimming & Diving Championships continued the record-breaking trend established throughout Wednesday's opening events, as a total 10 new league Top Five performances were established while an additional two records fell across Thursday's full slate of action at SPIRE Institute.

On the team leaderboard, the George Washington women surged to an even more commanding lead, as the Colonials concluded the second day with 287 total points. Richmond slots in at second with 192 points while Fordham (155 points), Duquesne (150) and George Mason (149) rounded out the top five.

For the men, GW also owns a solid advantage through two days of competition, boasting 295 points on the team rankings. UMass currently sits in second behind 184 points while Mason slides in at third via 178 points. Davidson (163 points) and St. Bonaventure (157 points) wrap up the top five on the leaderboard.

DAY TWO HIGHLIGHTS
  • The opening round of individual events kicked off the morning prelims, including the men's & women's 500 freestyle, the men's & women's 200 individual medley and the men & women's 50 freestyle. The men's 1-meter diving rounded out their prelims in the early afternoon.
     
  • During the morning preliminaries session, four separate performances breached the Top Five rankings of their respective events, including:
    • George Washington's Julia Knox posted a 1:58.56 in the women's 200 IM, moving up into second on the all-time performance list
    • Mason's Ali Tyler clocked a :22.58 showing in the women's 50 freestyle, good for the second-best performance at an A-10 Championship (only trails her own mark of :22.29 set in last year's prelims)
    • The one-two punch of GW's Djurdje Matic (:19.71) and Matthew Whelan (:19.80) managed to secure the No. 2 and No. 3 overall spots on the men's 50 freestyle all-time leaderboard (at that point), respectively, notably hitting those marks during the same heat
       
  • Bona's Lucas Dekaney wrapped up the men's 1-meter diving in the top position after posting the only 300-plus score of the prelims behind a 304.60 showing. Tommy Cotner of UMass along with Bonnies teammate Ben Giera enter the evening finals as the favorites for silver and bronze, respectively, after finishing with prelims scores of 298.25 and 293.35.
     
  • The evening finals started off with a Top Five performance from GW's Ava Topolewskil, who captured the gold medal in the women's 500 freestyle behind a 4:46.99 mark, good for the new No. 4 position in the league record books. Davidson's Dylan Felt followed suit soon after in the men's 500 freestyle, notching a 4:20.02 time en route to a first-place finish and the third overall spot on the conference leaderboard.
     
  • Knox, who put together a solid performance in the 200 IM prelims as well, outdid herself in the evening session, clocking a new A-10 record for the event via a 1:57.81 mark, outpacing the previous best by just .08 seconds. The Colonials continued their record book dominance an event later as Mark Osina grabbed the new No. 2 position on the league's all-time performance list for the men's 200 individual medley, clocking a 1:44.91 time and falling short of his own record, set during last year's championships, by a total .19 seconds.
     
  • After Tyler managed to secure the gold medal in the women's 50 freestyle by a narrow .01 seconds, both Whelan and Matic composed virtual-repeat performances over on the men's side, notably inverting their placements in the finals. Whelan scooped the gold medal off a :19.74 time, good for the new No. 3 on the all-time leaderboard, while Matic captured silver, sliding into fifth all-time via his :19.81 mark.
     
  • The men's 1-meter diving concluded next, and featured Cotner vaulting into first behind a 314.60 score. George Washington's Spencer Bystrom (302.80) earned the silver medal by a slim margin while Giera held onto third with a 302.65 final mark.
     
  • In the women's 200 freestyle relay, the GW squad of Chloe Hernandez, Barbara Schaal, Phoebe Wright and Marlee Rickert beat out their competition by one tenth of a second for the gold medal, clocking a 1:31.53 time and matching the previous fourth fastest mark in league history. For the men's 200 freestyle relay, the Colonial crew of Whelan, Matic, Dylan Koo and Ganesh Sivaramakrishnan posted a new conference record for the event off a 1:18.05 effort, notably beating out the previous top mark by nearly half a second.

The championships continue Friday with another round of morning preliminaries and evening finals, and will feature the 400 IM, the 100 butterfly, the 200 freestyle, the 100 breaststroke, 100 backstroke, women's 3-meter diving and 400 medley relay. For more information, visit the 2023 A-10 Swimming & Diving Championships Central.