UMBC Men and Women Take Lead into Day 4 of America East Championships

America East – Women & Men

• Thursday, February 14 – Sunday, February 17
• WPI Sports and Recreation Center, Worcester, MA (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: UMBC Men (3x) & New Hampshire Women (1x) (results)
• Live results
• Live Video
• Championship Central
• Day 1 Recap
• Day 2 Recap
• Day 3 results

2019 America East Swimming & Diving Championships Team Standings through Day 3 (28 events)

Women

1. UMBC (604.5 points)
2. New Hampshire (529)
3. Vermont (353)
4. Maine (330.5)
5. VMI (140)
6. Stony Brook (134)

Men

1. UMBC (782.5 points)
2. Binghamton (558)
3. Maine (336.5)
4. VMI (300)

The UMBC men nearly put their 4th-straight America East Championship title out-of-reach on Saturday in Worcester, Massachusetts. The UMBC women, while they actually lost ground to defending champions New Hampshire (thanks in part to diving), still hold a comfortable margin going into the diving-less final day of competition on Sunday.

Women’s Meet Day 3 Recap

New Hampshire junior Corinne Carbone won her 2nd individual event of the meet, topping the 400 IM in 4:18.74, finishing just .02 seconds ahead of freshman teammate Anna Meltzer on a come-from-behind freestyle anchor. The two were almost 8 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

Carbone also won the 200 IM on Friday, though that race she won by more than two-and-a-half seconds.

That kicked off a day of hyper-competitive races. UMBC sophomore Natalija Marin won the 100 fly in 54.83, just .02 seconds (and another come-from-behind win) ahead of junior teammate Sotiria Neofytou. New Hampshire’s top finisher, senior Vivi El-Sibay, took 3rd in 55.02.

Last year, Marin tied for the conference title in the event with Binghamton’s Brooke Pettis, who was DQ’ed in prelims.

Other Day 3 Winners:

• Maine senior Juliana McDonald, who last year won the B Final in 1:54.76 (a lifetime best coming into this meet), was almost 6 seconds faster this season to win in 1:49.09. Vermont’s Sierra Sexton took 2nd in 1:50.08.
• UMBC senior Madyson Popalis won her first America East Championship, topping the 100 breaststroke in 1:02.46 – over a second ahead of New Hampshire’s Haylee Committe. UMBC put 3 swimmers into the A-Final of that race, which went a long way to helping them hold their lead through day 3. UMBC has won 5 of the last 7 America East titles in the event.
• New Hampshire hit back with a win in the 100 back from sophomore Melissa Dingle in 55.76. She knocked-off UMBC’s Emily Vance, who is the defending conference champion but finished just 2nd this season.
• New Hampshire won their first relay of the 2019 championship with a 3:44.04 in the women’s 400 medley relay. Last year, when New Hampshire won their first team title since 2014, they swept the medley relays, and won none of the free relays.
• Binghamton freshman Amanda McGraw won the women’ 1-meter event with a score of 241.55, just 4 points ahead of Sophia Howard. New Hampshire made up 16 points on UMBC in that event.

Men’s Meet Day 3 Recap

UMBC broke the men’s meet wide open on Saturday, almost tripling their lead from 81.5 points to 224.5 on the day. The swing came to 5 wins in 4 men’s events on offer, including a 1-2-3-4-5 finish in the 100 fly and 1-2-3-4 finish in the 100 backstroke.

In the latter of those races, senior Alexander Gliese led the way with a new Meet and Conference Record of 47.26 in prelims, which he broke again with a 47.16 in finals. He was followed by junior Garrett Wlochowski (47.80), freshman Luka Zuric (50.02), and freshman Satori Dobbie (50.22).

The 100 fly was an even deeper event, with Jack Carlisle leading the way in 49.47. UMBC took the top 5 spots in the race with 3 freshmen, 1 sophomore, and 1 junior: all underclassmen. Binghamton, who are currently ranked 2nd as a team, went 6-7-8 in the final, but UMBC still made up 43 points in that event alone.

UMBC’s men finished with another Meet and Conference Record in the 400 medley relay, touching in 3:14.68. That took almost a second off the old Conference Record of 3:15.66 set by Boston University in 2011. Boston University is no longer in the conference. Gliese led off that relay in 47.33, followed by Ganley (54.67), Dobbie (48.47), and Rattsev (44.21).

Other Day 3 Winners:

• UMBC sophomore Kai Wisner won the men’s 400 IM in 3:56.33. He held a second-and-a-half lead on Binghamton’s Ross Bernstein entering the freestyle leg of the race. While Bernstein was able to close with the fastest final 100 split of the race, Wisner held on to a .35-second margin of victory.
• Ilia Rattsev gave UMBC another big win, by over 3 seconds, in the men’s 200 free. He swam 1:37.55 to defend his title (he was 1:37.14 last year).
• UMBC’s Connor Ganley won the men’s 100 breaststroke in 52.22, overcoming a small deficit to teammate Luis Galvan Cardenas, who wound up 2nd in 55.28.