The George Washington women’s swimming & diving team opened 2016-17 with four first-place finishes at Queens in the first portion of a two-day quad meet with Davidson and UNC-Asheville at the Levine Center. The Colonials will finish the season-opening meet on Saturday morning at 11 a.m. at Davidson’s Charles A. Cannon Pool.
The Colonials lead UNC-Asheville, 102-64, and Davidson, 89-77, after the first day of competition. Two-time defending Division II champion Queens holds a 99-67 advantage over GW.
Sophomore Lucy Castro logged GW’s first win of the day, finishing first in the 1,000 freestyle in 10:35.37. Classmate Emily Zhang later posted a top finish in the 200 IM (2:06.73) and freshman Jackie Torrez won the 200 butterfly to wrap GW’s top individual finishes of the day. Torrez logged a time of 2:06.30 to jump into fifth on GW’s all-time top 10 list in her collegiate debut.
In relay action, the team of freshman Gemma Atherley, senior Lauren Law, junior Abigail Fusco and Emily Zhang won the 800 free relay in 7:45.49 for GW’s fourth and final top finish of the day. The Colonials grabbed a fourth-place finish in the 400 medley relay with Fusco, Torrez, Law and Emily Zhang (3:57.66).
Emily Zhang added a third-place finish in the 200 free (1:54.25) to her strong day and was followed closely by Atherley in fourth (1:55.61).
Fusco also performed well on Friday evening in her individual events, grabbing second in the 100 backstroke (58.54) and third in the 50 free (24.32).
The Colonials conclude the two-day season-opening meet on Saturday morning at 11 a.m.