HAMPTON, Va. – George Washington owned the evening on day one of the 2024 Atlantic 10 Swimming and Diving Championships, taking home all four of the relay events and setting three conference records on Wednesday at the Hampton Aquaplex.
In addition to the trio of records, there were five other top five Atlantic 10 performances set on the first day of the four day meet.
Massachusetts took home gold for the second year in a row in the lone diving event of the evening, the Men’s 1-Meter, with Andrew Bell posting the best score at the Atlantic 10 Championships in 16 years with a 381.75.
The Revolutionaries lead the men’s standings with 111 points. Massachusetts (91) and St. Bonaventure (90) are neck and neck in second and third place with La Salle not far behind with 84. George Mason (63), Fordham (60), Saint Louis (55) and Davidson (51) are all tightly contested between fifth and eighth.
On the women’s side, George Washington holds the lead with 80 points. Fordham (66 points) and Duquesne (62) follow in second and third while UMass (60) and Richmond stand tied in fourth. St. Bonaventure is in sixth with 48 points, George Mason is in seventh with 44 points, while Davidson (38), La Salle (36), Rhode Island (34) and Saint Louis (32) all stand in the thirties.
DAY ONE HIGHLIGHTS
- The evening session launched with a record-breaking performance as the George Washington women surpassed last year’s A-10 record set by Richmond in the 200-medley relay by 1.70 seconds. Marlee Rickert, Ava DeAngelis, Moriah Freitas and Barabara Schaal clocked a 1:38.23 time to win the race. Fordham put forth the sixth-best time in Atlantic 10 history and a school record, finishing second in the race with a 1:39.67 mark, led by Jane Brown, Emma Shaughnessy, Jessica Zebrowski and Manon Comagner.
- On the men’s side in the 200-medley, George Washington was just .01 seconds off the school record, winning the event with a 1:25.70 time, the third-best time in conference history. Karol Mlynarczyk, Preston Lin, Djurdje Matic and G Sivaramakrishnan earned the gold medal for the Revolutionaries. Fordham (1:26.19) and La Salle (1:26.26) put forth the fifth and sixth-best times in conference history, earning the silver and bronze medals.
- The championships then transitioned to the diving board, where Andrew Bell from Massachusetts won the gold medal in the 1M Dive with a 381.75 score, the best at the Atlantic 10 Championships since 2008. Ben O’Neill from St. Bonaventure and Samm Henninger from La Salle earned silver and bronze with respective scores of 319.65 and 314.55.
- George Washington dominated both 800-free relays, setting an Atlantic 10 record with a 7:10.63 time, with Phoebe Wright, Julia Knox, Olivia Tighe and Ava Topolewski leading the charge and shattering the previous record they set last year by close to two seconds. Duquesne had the third-best time in league history and the second-best tonight with a 7:14.11 time, led by Lexi Sungren, Molly Brennan, Orla Egan and Haley Scholer setting the mark.
- The Revolutionaries shattered their own record set back in 2019 on the men’s side with a 6:24.92 time, led by Toni Dragoja, Misha Lyubavskiy, Daniel Nagy and Connor Rodgers to win gold. The top four times in the race would’ve been a conference record if not for George Washington, with George Mason getting second place (6:26.37), Davidson finishing in third (6:28.22) and St. Bonaventure finishing in fourth (6:28.35).
The championships resume Thursday with morning preliminaries and afternoon finals. The full schedule can be found on the
Swimming & Diving Championship page.