Saturday’s dual meet was an unresolved rubber match between the College of Charleston Cougars and the Davidson College Wildcats, as the Carolina colleges split the wins at the Canon Pool in Davidson, North Carolina. The Wildcats easily won the women’s competition 210-90 for their home-opener, while the visiting Charleston Cougars took the men’s competition.
Going into the meet, the CAA’s Cougars defeated the A-10’s Wildcats last year at home in Charleston, but suffered a loss the last time they visited Davidson in 2012. Saturday’s dual was a chance for the teams to start some variation of a full-team win streak.
Click here for full meet results.
WILDCAT WOMEN DOMINATE
Sophomore Elise Lankiewicz won the 100-yard free (1:53.90), the 200-yard free (1:53.90) and the 500-yard free (5:06.21) for three of Davidson’s 14 wins, which included four one-two-three sweeps and four 1-2 finishes. Lankiewicz was also a member of the winning 400-yard free relay (3:32.80) with a 52.61 split to factor into four Wildcat wins.
Senior Meredith Nakano was also a four-event winner individually capturing the 100-yard fly (57.92) and the 200-yard fly (2:07.77), plus helping her Davidson teammates win the opening 400-yard medley relay (3:56.40) by 10 seconds and then the 400-yard free relay (3:32.80).
Individual victories came from Elizabeth Weldon, whose win in the 1000-yard free (10:40.80) was the first Wildcat one-two-three sweep, freshman Kate Moreton in the 100-yard back (59.68), Katy Williams in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:25.28), freshman Sarah Coats in the 200-yard individual medley (2:11.46), Lauren Malachowski in the 200-yard back (2:10.01), sophomore Kassie Shannon in the 50-yard free (24.48), and diver Karen Monuszko in the 1-meter event.
Monuszko was nearly a double winner, placing second by less than a point to Charleston’s Megan Norton in the 3-meter event. Norton placed second to Monuszko in the 1-meter.
In addition to Norton’s win, the other win for the Cougars came from Taylor Hollingsworth in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:06.83).
RYAN WILLIAM LEADS COUGARS TO WIN
The Davidson men opened up the meet by edging Charleston by 0.4 seconds in the 400-yard medley relay to win (3:24.83), but it was the Cougars who went on to win nine individual events, the final relay and ultimately the meet.
Sophomore William Ryan was dominant for Charleston with three individual wins. William took the 100-yard breaststroke (57.44), the 200-yard breaststroke (2:04.24) by five seconds, and 200-yard individual medley (1:55.61) by two seconds.
Strong wins was a trend with the Charleston’s men. Senior Pablo Ortiz won the 200-yard fly (1:52.67) by nearly five seconds, and sophomore Talmage Spence won the 200-yard free (2:04.24) by five seconds. Talmage went on to anchor Charleston’s winning 400-yard medley relay with a 46.78 split.
Individual wins for Charleston also came from juniors Alex Wood in the 50-yard free (21.45), Buckley Powell in the 100-yard fly (50.82) and Michael Topitzer in the 1-meter and 3-meter diving event.
For Davidson, individual victories came from multi-event winner Junior Luke Burton in 100-yard back (51.10) and 200-yard back (1:54.39), freshman Clay Resweber in the 500-yard freestyle (4:47.12) and 1000-yard freestyle (8:25.12), and Cameron Bard in the 100-yard free (47.35).
NEXT UP
The Wildcats are off until Nov. 7 when they host Queens in Davidson, North Carolina, while Charleston has a conference match-up against host George Mason, Towson and Northeastern this Friday and Saturday(Oct. 31-Nov. 1) in Fairfax, VA.