LANCASTER, Pa. (November 21, 2021) – Mount St. Mary's swim teams impressed in their weekend at the Franklin & Marshall Invitational. The men's team finished with the strongest effort at the meet in program history with a runner-up placement, while the women matched their best finish by coming in third.
Nine individuals and a relay team took home winning performances – five men and four women. All times by the victors rank in the top five for all-time finishes in Mount history. The men's 400 medley relay team of
Jonathan Mata,
Aidan Grady,
Thomas de Xavier and
Peter Jones were within hundredths of a second of the school record, taking the race in 3:24.14.
Nicholas Santorelli won the 200 freestyle by running a time of 1:40.61, also second best in history.
Freshman
Meghan Speicher opened the Mount's triumphant ways Friday with a 5:07.32 in the 500 free.
Valeria Villagran captured first in the 100 fly, swimming the race in 57.59 seconds Saturday.
Kira Buchler and
Dahna Yoon turned in their victories Sunday, with Buchler earning a 2:03.65 in the 200 backstroke and Yoon finishing the 200 fly in 2:07.66.
The men's 100 meter breaststroke continued their dazzling season run, with
Jacob Wallace registering the win this weekend. Wallace's time of 54.51 seconds serves as a new meet record. Grady's second place time of 55.15 also bested the previous F&M Invitational record. Mata's 51.34 second endeavor in the 100 back complimented the breaststroke efforts on Saturday.
Sunday saw Grady succeed again, this time winning the 200 breast in 2:03.03.
Ryan Griffiths added his name to the titleholder rolls with a 1:54.65 in the 200 back.
Throughout the three-day event, many Mountaineers excelled in their events. Along with the 10 wins came 31 top five finishes, nine of which were runner-up feats.
Austin Dodd,
Griffin Distler, and
Maddy Samuels highlighted a host of contributors who boosted the Mount's scores.
After all events ran, the men's team registered 1,402.5 points and the women earned 963 points. Washington & Lee University won the women's meet and host Franklin & Marshall took the men's.
The Mount's next meet is in December with the Loyola H2Ounds Invitational in Baltimore.
