Results |Â
Team ScoresGrantham, PA - Messiah College men's and women's swimming opened their respective seasons at home on Saturday with a quad against Hood, FDU-Florham, and Widener. The women collected a number of solid times and the men also performed well.
Messiah's women swept the event in convincing fashion, with their 137-67 decision over Widener representing their closest finish. The Pride finished fourth last season at the MAC Championships, though this early-season barometer is sure to change as the season moves forward. Even still, the Falcons were strong and flexed a few muscles in winning almost every event.
Tara Freeman did as much in a first-place finish in the 50 freestyle with a time of 24.80, not too far behind last year's MAC title time of 24.42. (
Notice: An ealier edition of this article incorrectly listed Freeman's time as 54.80. Freeman is faster than that. Much, much faster.)
Emily Reale also had a nice opening with wins in the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle. Messiah also had a number of younger swimmers make strong impressions including
Britta Heath (second, 1000 freestyle),
Brittany Pond (second, 50 freestyle), and
Cassie Cotton who took first in the 100 butterfly and second in the 200 freestyle. Last year's conference Rookie of the Year,
Kaitlin Wingert, also had a good day with a first-place finish in the 100 IM and second-place finish in the 100 freestyle.
The Messiah men had a dominating decision over FDU (161-34) but were edged by both Hood and Widener, the two teams directly in front of them last year the MAC Championships. A number of good performances were mixed in including
Aaron Eckman taking second in the 1000 freestyle and
Nolan McArdle taking third in both the 100 IM and 100 backstroke.
Dakota Schmalz and
Nick Wieder took second and third in the 100 butterfly, respectively, and Wieder and Eckman also went back-to-back at second and third in the 500 freestyle.
The men's 200 freestyle relay team of
Joe Cornelius,
Nolan McArdle,
Dakota Schmalz, and
Jason Maccannon had a decent showing with a runner-up time of 1:32.03.
The Falcons will return to action this week when they travel to York on Wednesday, Nov. 11 for a meet at 6:00 p.m.
