Courtesy: JMU Sports
Harrisonburg, Va. – James Madison swimming & diving closed out the regular season with a victory over Richmond, 182-117, in Savage Natatorium on Saturday March 6.
“First, I want to thank Matt Coach Matt Barany and his program for traveling and allowing us to host them this weekend,” said head coach Dane Pedersen. “We are grateful for any opportunity to compete especially in these times.I was very happy how our girls raced today. We reflected the specific work we’ve been putting in these last few weeks which was very encouraging to see.”
JMU captured 11 first place finishes, including both diving events, the 1-meter and 3-meter board.
The Dukes opened the dual meet with a victory in the 200-yard medley relay by the team of Cameron Gring, Mackenzie Lawson, Madison Cottrell and Jordyn Schnell. The relay team clocked a time of 1:43.21 to set a new Savage Pool record. The relay team of Alaina Park, Devan Taylor, Morgan Whaley and Emily Drakopoulos placed second in the 200 medley relay.
Gring captured an individual victory in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 57.41, followed by Whaley in second at 58.01. Cottrell captured two individual victories in the 100-yard backstroke (56.45) and 200-yard backstroke (2:03.13) where the Dukes took the top four spots. Cottrell took gold, Lauren Alymer claimed second, Park tabbed third followed by Drakopoulos in fourth.
Bailey Butler led the way for the Dukes in the 1000-yard freestyle event taking second place with a time of 10:24.15, a career best. Butler placed fifth in the 400-yard individual medley. Paige Assaid battled for first place in the 200-yard freestyle event, clocking a time of 1:52.30, followed by Julianna Jones in third, Sidney Whitfield in fourth and Karen Siddoway in fifth. Assaid tabbed second in the 100-yard freestyle event with a time of 52.46. Schnell placed third in the event (52.69), followed by Siddoway in fourth (53.52) and Jill Santiago in fifth. In the 500-yard freestyle, Jones battled to the finish to take first place with a time of 5:03.06.
Mackenzie Lawson tabbed a time of 1:05.97 in the 100-yard breaststroke to claim first place for the Dukes. Lawson came in third in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:25.66. Whaley finished first in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:06.91. In the 50-yard freestyle event, Park placed second with 24.89, Drakopoulos in third with 25.02 and Emily Wisniewski in fifth clocking a time of 27.42.
JMU won the 400-yard freestyle relay event with a time of 3:32.24 from the team of Schnell, Cottrell, Siddoway and Gring. The team of Sidney Diehl, Park, Drakopoulos and Santiago placed third clocking a time of 3:38.61.
The diving scores for JMU and Richmond were taken from the Duke Dog Diving Invite on Feb. 27. JMU diving claimed the top three spots on both boards. (2:03.13). Lindsey Hammar captured the victory on the 1-meter with 282.45, followed by Emily Gross in second and Sarah Stim in third. Faith Anderson took first in the 3-meter dive scoring a 283.55. Gross placed second, followed by Hammar in third.
“We just have some finishing touches to put in the next weeks and then we go through the resting process for our conference championships at the end of March. Nothing stands between these girls and some very fast swimming and great diving ahead!”
Up Next
Six James Madison divers will travel to Greensboro, N.C. to compete in the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships on March 11-12. Faith Anderson, Emily Gross, Lindsey Hammar, Lexi Lehman, Sarah Stim and Sami Ullman will compete in the 1-meter and 3-meter events at the championships.