Night three of A-10 Championships are in the books with St. Bonaventure men pulling away thanks to three consecutive conference titles to end the Friday session. The women of Richmond cut the University of Massachusetts lead to only 2 points in hopes of sealing their 5th straight A-10 Title at the end of tomorrow’s session.
2015 Men and Women’s A10 Championships
Wednesday February 18- Saturday, February 21
Geneva, Ohio – The Spire Institute
Prelims/Finals Th-Sat 10:00AM/6:30PM Wednesday 3:00PM/6:30PM
Defending Champs: Women-Richmond(4x) Men-St.Bonaventure(2x)
Live Results
Championship Central
After a rough 200 IM on Thursday, Duquesne’s Lexi Santer took out the front half of her 400 IM in 2:02.36: more than 4.5 seconds ahead of her closest competitor. Santer (4:20.33) held off a charging Madison Baker (4:20.45) of George Mason to win the 400 IM. After earning a bronze medal in the 200IM, Meriza Werenski of UMass added another bronze to her collection on the weekend touching at 4:20.63.
Hannah Verrette of Richmond (4:25.74), Duquesne’s Kylie Dickman (4:26.13), Sarah Brallier of George Mason (4:26.98), Catherine McAllister of Duquesne (4:27.65), and Megan Polaha from Fordham(4:28.30) made up the rest of the “A” final.
Steve Sholdra of Fordham dipped under the NCAA B cut winning the 400 IM at 3:52.72. Will Clendenin of George Mason was second in 3:53.31; he was followed by teammate Steven Craig (3:55.83), Aust Nguyenphu of Saint Louis (3:57.14), Grant Smith (3:57.19) and Brandon Nestor (3:58.34) of George Mason, Gor Koprivnjak of George Washington (3:58.60), and Michael Glenn of UMass (3:58.71).
Richmond’s Kelley Yang split 24.64 on the first half of the 100 butterfly en route to breaking the conference meet record punching the wall at 53.65. Shannon Lulley of Fordham (53.82) finished strong for second and Sydney Fisher of George Mason (54.86) touched in 3rd. Meredith Nakano of Davidson (55.05) and Anna Fetter (55.31) added to the Richmond point total finishing 5th.
After splitting 20.84 on the George Mason 200 Medley on opening night there had been talk of senior Travis Lauri having a shot at the meet and conference record. That chance became a reality as Lauri touched the wall in 47.86 out touching Cameron Fadley(47.92) of La Salle. Lauri’s training partner and fellow senior Danny Camozzo finished third in 48.58. The St. Bonaventure men were well represented in the final with seniors Ripley Danner(48.64) and Matt Rochna (48.97) taking 4th and 5th.
With her name already on the 200 freestyle meet and conference record from opening night, Elise Lankiewicz (1:48.20) came up just short of matching her lead off time from Wednesday. Annie Lane (1:49.39) of Richmond and Sam Ray (1:49.50) of Duquesne rounded out the top three. Massachusetts did what they could from the B-Final with seniors Molly Smyth (1:51.34) and Zoe Judd (1:51.48) bringing home 10th and 11th place points.
Freshman Ryan McCoy (1:37.11) stormed past the field with a closing 50 of 24.07 to win the 200 Freestyle. 500 freestyle conference record holder of UMass Bomprezzi (1:37.56) touched second with St. Bonaventure’s Viach Shchukin (1:37.92) coming up just short of second.
Annie Lane (1:02.61) from Richmond added half a second from her morning swim to still win the 100 breastroke, fellow freshman Kayla Owens (1:03.19) of Duquesne and sophomore Katy Williams (1:03.20) charged pass Katie Arnott of UMass on the final 25 to finish 2nd and 3rd in the women’s 100 breast. Arnott (1:03.38) and Davidson’s Meredith Nakano (1:03.50) fell just short of the podium finishing 4th and 5th.
Matthew Goettler (54.85) and Preston Schilling (54.93) of St. Bonaventure both just missed Alvaro Fortuny’s conference record of 54.65 as the training partners nearly touched in unison collecting 37 much-needed points for the Bona Wolves. Steve Hansen of Saint Louis tied with La Salle’s Johan Roth at 54.96 to share the 3rd place podium.
Freshmen seemed to rule the night three session as Abby Watson of Duquesne (55.82) out touched George Mason senior Kelsey Sorensen (55.84) and Morgan Fairclough (55.89) of Fordham to capture gold for the lady Dukes. Maggie Pope (55.94) of Richmond ran out of gas falling to 4th and Rebecca Quirie (56.38) of Massachusetts coming in 5th.
Michael Pilyugin (47.30) could not match his newly set meet and conference record of 47.27 from the morning session. The St. Bonaventure junior was closely followed by Luke Burton (47.56) of Davidson and UMass freshman Oliver Wyeth (48.13).
Irina Chiulli of Richmond placed first in the women’s 3 meter diving competition tonight. While Chiulli picked up the gold for the lady Spiders UMass placed 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th in the championship final giving Massachusetts a 10 point lead entering the 400 medley relay.
The Fordham relay team of Fairclough(55.93), McGovern (1:03.22), Lulley (54.08) and Lulley (50.60) combined to take the women’s 400 medley at 3:43.83. Richmond (3:43.90) finished second with Duquesne (3:44.69) not far behind for third.
The St. Bonaventure men set new meet and conference records in the 400 Medley as Pilyugin(47.65), Goettler(54.04), White (48.19), and Shchukin (43.02) finished at 3:12.90. La Salle (3:16.29) held off Saint Louis (3:16.69) for second with great middle relay splits from Roth (54.29) and Fadley (47.93).
Team Scores
Men:
1. St. Bonaventure 412
2.UMass 366.5
3.George Mason 350
4. La Salle 289.5
5. Saint Louis 271
6. Davidson 231
7. George Washington 201.5
8.Fordham 187.5
Women:
1. UMass 411
2. Richmond 409
3. Duquesne 333
4. Fordham 296
5. Davidson 286
6 George Mason 268
7. La Salle 215
8. Saint Louis 158
9. Rhode Island 111
10. St. Bonaventure 92
11. George Washington 67