George Washington, Davidson Break #A10SD Records On Day Two of 2024 Championships

2/22/2024 9:51:15 PM

HAMPTON, Va. – Three more conference records were shattered on day two of the 2024 Atlantic 10 Swimming and Diving Championships on Thursday as George Washington continues to lead the standings.
 
Records were broken by Davidson’s Dylan Felt in the 500-free, George Washington’s Djurdje Matic in the 50-free and the George Washington women’s 200-free relay team.
 
On the team leaderboard, the George Washington women surged to an even more commanding lead, as the Colonials concluded the second day with 330 total points. Richmond slots in at second with 180.5 points while Duquesne (160 points), Fordham (158) and Davidson (116) rounded out the top five.
 
For the men, GW also owns a solid advantage through two days of competition, boasting 283 points on the team rankings. Fordham currently sits in second behind 177 points while St. Bonaventure slides in at third via 172 points. Massachusetts (169 points) and George Mason (155 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 women's 1-meter diving rounded out their prelims in the early afternoon.
  • During the morning preliminaries sessions, four separate performances breached the Top Five rankings in the men’s and women’s 50-free including:
    • In a prelude to his record setting evening session, George Washington’s Djurdje Matic had the third best time in conference history, which is also his third-best time ever, tying for the prelim win at 19.62, with Fordham’s Guy Gropper.
    • On the women’s side, Richmond’s Melissa Nwakalor also posted the third-best time in league history at 22.55, foreshadowing her evening gold medal. George Mason’s Ali Tyler, who tied Nwakalor in the evening session was right behind her in the morning with the fourth-best time in conference history at 22.62.
  • The evening session was dominated by George Washington and it started in the women’s 500-free with Zoe Schneider taking home gold with the second-fastest time in conference history at 4:44.37. Her teammate Ava Topolewski was right behind her in second place with the third-fastest time in A-10 history at 4:44.44. Another Revolutionary earned the bronze medal as Pheobe Wright came in two seconds behind at 4:46.44.
  • On the men’s side of the 500-free, Davidson’s Dylan Felt shattered the conference record time by close to three seconds, winning the event with a 4:16.58 mark, over five seconds faster than everyone else. George Washington’s Mis Lyubavskiy won silver with a 4:21.63 time and St. Bonaventure’s Max Murray came in third at 4:22.13.
  • The women’s 200-yard IM was won by Ainhoa Martin of Fordham as she posted the third-fastest time in Atlantic 10 history at 1:58.25. George Washington’s Julia Knox tied for the fifth-best time in league history, finishing second at 1:58.99. GW’s Ava DeAngelis earned bronze at 2:00.72.
  • The men’s 200-yard IM saw George Washington’s Connor Rodgers come .02 seconds from the conference record, beating the rest of the field by over two seconds at 1:44.74. George Mason’s Tate Anderson came in second at 1:46.75 and GW’s Georgi Yanev finished third at 1:46.92.
  • There was a tie in the women’s 50-free with Richmond’s Melissa Nwakalor and Mason’s Ali Tyler splitting gold at 22.78. Halle Myers from St. Bonaventure came in third at 22.82.
  • A record was broken in the men’s 50-free with Djurdje Matic topping his own previous mark with a 19.52 time. La Salle’s Felix Jedbratt entered the record book with the third-fastest time in league history at 19.62. Fordham’s Guy Gropper finished third at 19.65.
  • We head over to diving, where George Washington’s Olivia Paquette won gold with a 287.40 score. Davidson’s Annie Valmassei took home the silver medal with a 261.45 mark and GW’s Dara Reyblat finished third at 255.25.
  • To finish the night, we had the 200-free relays, where on the women’s side George Washington broke another conference record as Chloe Hernandez, Barbara Schaal, Marlee Ricket and Moriah Freitas earned gold with a 1:30.48 time. Richmond’s team of Lucy Yeomans, Melissa Nwakalor, Julia Krichev and Caitlyn Hughes finished tied for the fifth-best time in league history at 1:31.53. George Mason finished .04 seconds behind them for third place at 1:31.57.
  • In the men’s 200-free, George Washington won gold with the third-best time in A-10 history at 1:18.54, led by Toni Dragoja, Ganesh Sivaramakrishnan, Ethan Tulenko and Djurdje Matic. Fordham earned silver with the fourth-fastest time in league history as Christian Taylor, Guy Gropper, Noah Althoff and Alex Shah led the Rams to a 1:19.01 mark. George Mason finished third with a 1:19.66 mark.
Day three of the Atlantic 10 Swimming & Diving Championships will begin at 10 am tomorrow with prelims. Follow along here.