The No. 14 West Florida women’s swimming and diving team picked up its sixth straight dual meet win after sweeping Birmingham-Southern and Sewanee on Saturday. The Argonauts topped Birmingham-Southern 149-84 and Sewanee 153-79 to improve to 7-2 on the season and finish the road trip 4-0. UWF cruised to the victories after winning 12 of 13 events.
“Anytime you have to compete on back-to-back days is challenging,” said UWF head coach Andrew Hancock. “It’s difficult to recover and get back to a high level of performance on that second day, and our team was able to accomplish that. We have a lot of respect for our opponents today, who are two strong Division III programs. We’re proud to come out of today with two wins.”
A trio of Argonauts posted NCAA qualifying scores on Saturday. Peggy de Villiers (Somerset West, South Africa) set a new school record in the 200 Freestyle with a winning time of 1:53.17, which also marked an NCAA B-cut. Madeline Pitt (Trussville, Ala.) finished with a B-cut time (17:37.53) and placed first in the 1,650 Freestyle. Josie McKee posted an NCAA qualifying score of 268.55 in her win in the 3 meter diving event.
Pitt, de Villiers and McKee were also multi-event winners. Pitt won the 100 Butterfly (1:01.28) and was on the Argos’ winning team in the 200 Freestyle Relay (1:42.87), while de Villiers also placed first in the 50 Freestyle (24.83). McKee also won the diving event at the 1 meter height (247.90).
Anna-Marie Macht (Markkleeberg, Germany) placed first in two events, the 400 Individual Medley (4:41.74) and the 100 Freestyle (54.45). Nicole Machado (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) was the Argos’ other individual event winner, swimming a time of 58.75 in the 100 Backstroke.
UWF swept the relay events, as the 200 Medley Relay team of Emily Mitchell (Allen Park, Mich.), Gabrielle Spangenberg (Chuluota, Fla.), Carla Robles (Miami, Fla.) and Mariana de Paula (Santos, Brazil) placed first with a time of 1:51.60. The final event of the day was also a relay win for the Argos, as the team of Sophia Oliva (Plantation, Fla.), de Paula, Pitt and Jamie McDonald (Panama City, Fla.) combined for a time of 1:42.87.
The Argos will be back in action at Emmanuel College in Franklin Springs, Ga. on Friday, Jan. 23 at 4:30 p.m. ET. For information on all UWF athletics, visit www.GoArgos.com.
College Swimming News is courtesy of West Florida Swimming and Diving.