WASHINGTON, Pa. -- The Washington & Jefferson swimming and diving teams swept Chatham Saturday afternoon in Henry Natatorium. The men beat the Cougars by a score of 114-67, while the women just edged out Chatham, 155-137. This women's win was the first over Chatham since 2016-17.
The quartet of
Kimber Randolph (Greensburg,Pa./Hempfield),
Sydney Neumann (Long Beach, Calif./Millikan),
Amanda Graves (Irwin,Pa./Penn Trafford), and
Isabella Manzari (Venetia,Pa./Peters Township) opened with a win in the 200-yard medley relay, as they posted a time time of 2:00.61. Randolph added first place finishes in the 200 Breaststroke (2:48.00) and the 200 Butterfly (2:37.18). She was second in the 400 IM with a time of 5:24.03.
Andrew Ivory (Gibsonia, Pa./Mars) and
Taylor Newton (Olyphant,Pa./Scranton Prep) then claimed back-to-back first place finishes in the 1000-yard freestyle. Ivory crushed his previous season-best by 22 seconds, taking first place with his time of 11:09.29. Newton established a personal best and won the women's 1000-yard free by over 30 seconds with her time of 11:54.86. Newton still remains undefeated in her collegiate career in the 1000 Free.
Additionally, Ivory picked up two additional first place finishes for the Presidents in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:08.83) and 400 IM (4:41.68).
Nathan Smith (Fort Defiance, Va./Fort Defiance),
Colin Higinbotham (Denver, Pa./Cocalico), and
Warren Huang (Chino Hills, Calif./Chino Hills) each picked up two individual wins for the Red & Black. Smith touched first in the 100-yard backstroke (58.76) and the 200-yard backstroke (2:13.41). Higinbotham claimed the 50-yard freestyle (22.44) and the 100-yard freestyle (50.15), while Huang won the 100-yard butterfly (1:05.06) and the 200-yard butterfly (2:30.42).
Neumann and Graves helped the Presidents women tally points by each obtaining a first place and second place finish, respectively. Neumann picked up her second collegiate win this year in the 100-yard breaststroke with her time of 1:17.33. She then finished second in the 200-yard breaststroke with a 2:51.83. Both of these times were personal best for the freshman. Graves won the 100-yard butterfly by more than four seconds with her time of 1:03.66 and placed second in the 200-yard backstroke, clocking in a season best time of 2:17.04.
Sophomore diver
Taylor Weyrich (McMurray, Pa./Seton LaSalle) claimed top points in the 1-meter and the 3-meter diving, just edging out second place, Ali Cowan, by 2.8 points. Weyrich remains undefeated in both diving events thus far in 2021-22.
W&J finished the session with two final wins in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
Dean Kralic (Beaver Falls, Pa./Riverside),
Mark Nikitine (Easton, Pa./Wilson Area),
Nick Belofsky (Aurora, Ohio/Aurora), and Higinbotham finished with a time of 3:54.37, while the women quartet of Manzari, Newton,
Ainsley Huang (Portola Valley, Calif./Summit Prep), and Graves took top points with their time of 3:57.54.
W&J has next weekend off before they travel to Bradford, Pa. on Nov. 20 to swim a non-conference meet against Pitt-Bradford. This meet will be swimming only and scheduled to start at 11 A.M. W&J diving will be competing at the Carnegie Mellon Diving Invitational on Nov.19-20 in Pittsburgh.
