Lehigh vs West Chester
- Friday, October 22, 2021
- Bethlehem, Pa.
- Results
Courtesy: Lehigh Athletics
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – After falling in the season opener at Loyola Maryland last weekend, the Lehigh men’s swimming and diving team rebounded with a much-needed victory, a 134-97 win over West Chester Friday evening at Jacobs Pool.
The Mountain Hawks (1-1, 0-1 PL) got the win in nine different events, led by sophomore Connor Drucis’ two first place finishes in the 400-yard IM (4:11.70) and 200-yard butterfly (1:56.86).
“I thought it was a great team effort today and something we wanted to go into meet with,” said head coach Rob Herb. “We knew we could win this if we did that. We saw that in the scores. We had a lot of 1-2 finishes, 1-2-3-4 finishes, so everyone was really doing their part tonight.
“We had a lot of guys tonight have a great meet, both for the upperclassmen and the underclassmen.”
Lehigh began the meet with a victory in the 200-yard medley relay, as the tandem of Owen Thomas, Connor Sept, Elvin Lee and Aiden McCurley got the first-place finish with a time of 1:33.69.
Freshman Tim Norris and sophomore Alex Patti went 1-2 in the 200-yard freestyle with respective times of 1:42.27 and 1:43.34.
Heading into the 50-yard freestyle, it was senior Glenn Lasco that looked dominant with a time of 20.88, creeping closer to Justin White’s school record of 19.96 set back in 2017. Sophomore Aiden McCurley came in second with a time of 21.62. Lasco also got the win in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 46.08, just in front of Patti at 46.45.
After getting the win at Loyola Maryland on Saturday, senior Owen Thomas picked up another first-place win in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:54.04, ahead of third-place finisher, freshman Elvin Lee at 1:56.78.
Freshman Connor Goodyear got the win in the 500-yard freestyle event with his fast time of 4:47.74.
And finally, the men capped off the night winning the 400-freestyle relay, as the team of Norris, Patti, Lasco and McCurley timed in at 3:06.12.
The Mountain Hawks close the weekend on Saturday vs. Rider at Jacobs Pool Saturday at 1 p.m. The meet will be the final one before Lehigh welcomes archrival Lafayette on Nov. 19.
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BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Lehigh women’s swimming and diving team improved to 2-0 on the season for the first time since the 2019-20 campaign following a big home opening-victory, 131-111 over West Chester Friday evening at Jacobs Pool.
Led by freshman diver Sarah Gill, the Mountain Hawks (2-0, 1-0 PL) reeled off seven first place finishes to get the victory over the Rams.
On the boards, Gill improved upon her scores from last weekend against Loyola with personal bests in both the one-meter and three-meter diving events. Her score of 260.63 in the one-meter dive was just five points off the cut to qualify for NCAA Zone Diving Championships as a freshman.
“Sarah (Gill) just continues to dominate and I’m just so proud of that, she’s doing a great job,” said head coach Rob Herb. “We’re really getting a lot of points there and with a couple of other girls not here, we were able to balance everything with her.
“Everyone is just winning one event right now, so it’s been just a complete team effort, whether it’s one girl or another, we’re doing such a good job”
The Mountain Hawks started off the individual events with a victory in the 1650-yard freestyle, won by freshman Natalie Martin with a time of 17:47.50. Martin also came in second in the 500-yard freestyle (5:15.14).
Sophomore Noel Fresa picked up a first-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle with her time of 24.65 and Junior Sarah Hardy followed that up with a victory in the 400-yard individual medley (4:31.29). Junior Danielle Prekop came in second (4:35.60).
Heading into the 200-yard butterfly, Lehigh placed second and third behind solid swims for Hardy (2:06.29) and sophomore Julia Stevens (2:06.87).
Fifth-year senior Ann Foley showed her dominance once again in the 100-yard freestyle, defeating second place finisher Fresa by just under two seconds at 51.88.
Junior Hallie Wilson claimed a win in the 200-yard backstroke at 2:06.74, finishing just in front of freshman Willa Werwaiss (2:07.62).
Prekop and senior Liz Olszewski finished second and third place in the 200-yard breaststroke at times of 2:25.78 and 2:26.55, respectively.
Finally, the Mountain Hawks rounded out the night with a first-place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay as the team of Fresa, Stevens, Rogowski and Foley swam away in a time of 3:32.71. The quartet of Martin, Manthorp, Kelsey Thompson and Werwaiss finished in third place at 3:44.09.
“We came in with a completely different attitude and ramped things up,” said Herb. “We knew that every time we stepped onto the block, our purpose was to win. So, you could just see it tonight throughout all the strokes.
“For our women, it was a real tough competition tonight that came right down to the end and we were lucky to come on top with the victory.”
Lehigh will try to get to 3-0 to start the regular season when taking on Rider at Jacobs Pool Saturday at 1 p.m. The meet will be the final one before the Mountain Hawks host archrival Lafayette on Nov. 19.
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Courtesy: West Chester Athletics
BETHLEHEM, PA – Nikita Pisarenko (Tallinn, Estonia) picked up a win in his first swim of the season, and Carter Smith (Clarks Summit, Pa./Abington Heights) registered a pair of victories on each of the diving boards, but it was not enough for West Chester to overcome Division I host Lehigh in Jacobs Pool Friday night.
The Golden Rams (3-2) collected four first-place medals during the non-league tilt. However, the Mountain Hawks (1-1) prevailed 134-97.
West Chester continued to show growth in the distance events, taking first and second place in the 1650-yard freestyle after Thomas Powell III (West Grove, Pa./Bishop Shanahan) made a nice push at the end to pick up a few places and touch the wall second. Teammate Collin Pettit (Havertown, Pa./Haverford) won the event in a time of 16 minutes, 28.91 seconds while Powell touched in 16:46.37.
“The distance events keep getting better on both sides,” stated WCU head coach Steve Mazurek. “That is always a good sign for us. And it might be easy to miss Nolan’s (Benner) performance in the 100 free with Lehigh finishing first and second. But that’s a nice time-certainly his best dual meet time.”
Benner (Green Lane, Pa./Boyertown) placed third in the event with a time of 46.59 seconds.
In the 500 free, it was Powell touching the wall just ahead of Pettit as the two finished second and third, respectively. Powell logged a time of 4:48 flat while Pettit posted a 4:49.48.
Pisarenko won the 200 breaststroke in a time of 2:09.01 for the fourth and only other individual win for the Golden Rams.
West Chester heads to Bloomsburg next Friday for a dual meet against the Huskies at 5 p.m.
BETHLEHEM, PA – Ann Carozza (West Chester, Pa./East) registered a pair of NCAA ‘B’ cut times while logging the fastest time in Division II this winter in the 200-yard freestyle, but Division I host Lehigh managed to stave off a determined West Chester squad at Jacobs Pool Friday night.
The Mountain Hawks edged the Golden Rams, 131-111, despite another strong showing from Carozza, who helped the 200 medley relay to a first-place effort in addition to her two individual wins. She teamed with Lila DiCarlo (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Trinity), McKenzie Hemingway (Chestertown, Md./Queen Anne’s County) and Samantha Trumble (Dallastown, Pa./Dallastown) on the relay to record a time of 1 minute, 48.04 seconds.
“(Carozza’s) time in the 200 free was pure grit,” WCU head coach Steve Mazurek mentioned. “(The coaching staff) is really proud of how these athletes are handling the workload right now. Some managed to pull off season bests in the middle of tough training stretch. They had to dig deep. But, we saw a few excellent performances tonight.”
Carozza touched the wall in 1:50.55 in the 200 free and 2:02.09 in the 200 butterfly to hit her ‘B’ time cuts for the meet.
Maddie Koehle (State College, Pa./State College Area) won the 200 breast in 2:22.36, and Mikayla Niness (Spring City, Pa./Owen J. Roberts) won the 500 free in 5:09.46 for West Chester’s other first-place showings. Niness was runner-up in the 50 free with a time of 24.75. Hemingway, who was part of that medley relay winning squad mentioned earlier, placed third in the 50 free in 25.21.
West Chester did not win the mile (1650 free), but did show some depth as Caitlin Hamill (Collegeville, Pa./Villa Maria Academy) and Keeley Durkin (Brookhaven, Pa./Sun Valley) placed second and third, respectively, in the race.
A pair of runner-up performances off each of the diving boards highlighted those events for the Golden Rams. Sophia Ginochetti (Forty Forte, Pa./Wyoming Valley West) was second off the 3-meter board with a score of 220.65 while Shannon O’Hara (Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Twp.) was second off the 1-meter board with a 234.59.
West Chester heads to Bloomsburg next Friday for a dual meet against the Huskies at 5 p.m.