2018 CAA Champs Day 4: W&M Men and JMU Women Bring Home the Victories

2018 COLONIAL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, February 14 – Sunday, February 18
• Christiansburg Aquatic Center, Christiansburg, VA
• Live Results
• Championship Central

Women’s Meet

The James Madison reclaimed the CAA conference championship title, holding off William & Mary despite only winning a single event on the day.  That event was diving, where Hope Byrum led four Dukes in the A-final to take the win with a 295.70.

Megan Clark of Northeastern won the 100 free in 48.88.  That gave her a clean sweep of individual events, as she won the 50 free and 200 are earlier in the meet.

Drexel ‘s Alex Kutch completed the backstroke sweep with a 1:54.23 in the 200 back, breaking her own meet and conference record in the process.  Teammate Tanja Kirmse earned the win in the 200 fly with a time of 1:59.84.

The 200 breast went to UNC Wilmington’s Meagan Johnson, who won with a time of 2:13.11.

Northeastern’s quartet of Clark, Sara Touchette-McGowan, Sidney Smith, and Matilda Weiler ended the meet with a 3:21.95 win in the 400 free relay.

The win for JMU is their first since 2012, although they’d been the runner-up every year since then, and they broke W&M’s two year win streak.

Final Scores:
James Madison – 656
William & Mary – 583
Towson – 562.5
Northeastern – 477.5
Drexel – 443
UNC Wilmington – 374
Delaware – 227

Men’s Meet

The William & Mary men only got one individual event today, but parlayed depth and relay dominance into their fourth-straight conference title.

Carter Kale began the evening with what would turn out to be the Tribe’s only individual win, a 15:30.01 in the 1650.

From there, Drexel rattled off three straight victories.  Jason Arthur took the 200 back in 1:44.37, with over a one second margin of victory.  The next event was quite tighter, as Stathi Malamas just touched out W&M’s Colin Wright, 44.19 to 44.21.  After narrowly losing the 100 breast yesterday, Joseph Brown won the 200 breast by almost two seconds, in a time of 1:58.47.

Towson’s Jack Saunderson had probably the most dominant performance of the meet in the 200 fly, with his time of 1:41.69 almost six seconds ahead of the next finisher.  That time ranks 12th so far this year in NCAA Division I, according the USA Swimming NCAA database and tonight’s results from the SEC Championships.

W&M wrapped up their title with a victory in the 400 free relay.  Jack Doherty, Colin Wright, Kyle Neri, and Ian Thompson combined for a 2:56.51 that set a new conference record.

Final Scores:
William & Mary – 946
Drexel – 703
Towson – 566
UNC Wilmington – 525
Delaware – 349