ResultsMORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The West Virginia University swimming and diving teams opened the 2010-11 season splitting results with Penn State. The men were able to defeat the Nittany Lions by a score of 125-116, while the women fell, 174-67.
"Today was a very solid team day with the women swimming very well in comparison to their times at this point last season," coach Vic Riggs said. "The men's victory was an all-around total effort. Winning both relays and having points from diving were the keys. There were a lot of great individual efforts, but overall it is a great day to be a Mountaineer swimmer and diver."
Junior Matt O’Neill led the team with two first-place finishes in the diving well. O’Neill first broke a school record on the 1-meter (331.12 points) and then won the 3-meter (331.20 points). Senior George Farquhar swam to first place in the 200 breast (2:05.80), while junior Taylor Camp and sophomore Jared Goldthorpe each finished the 200 fly (1:49.73) and 200 back (1:49.65) in first place, respectively. Highly-acclaimed freshman Tim Squires was able to get his first-career victory in the 50 free (21.09).
On the women’s side, senior Lyn Ann Nelson took first place in the 200 free (1:53.25), while sophomores Kata Fodor and Rachael Burnett finished first in the 1,000 free (10:15.37) and 500 free (4:57.87), respectively.
The Mountaineers opened the day with the 400 medley relay where the women’s team of freshman Danielle Smith, junior Jaryn Studer and sophomores Mandie Nugent and Breanna McCann swam to a 3:57.55 third-place finish. The men’s squad of Goldthorpe, Farquhar, Camp and sophomore Hugh Simmonds took first in 3:21.56.
Along with Fodor winning on the women’s side, sophomore Sloan Storie took fourth in 10:31.80 in the 1,000 free. Sophomore Tim O’Malley scored points with his third-place finish in 9:47.69, along with sophomore Jake Querciagrossa who finished in 10:04.46 for fifth place.
Nugent finished third (1:54.47) in the 200 free, while Simmonds and Farquhar each took second (1:41.03) and fourth (1:44.32), respectively, for the men.
Freshman Kaitie Layne took fourth (25.59) in the 50 free, while Eichenseer took second (21.42) behind Squires. Junior Martin Vanis scored points with his fourth-place (22.07) finish.
Burnett took second (4:22.13) in the 400 IM, followed by sophomore Austen Carrington who took fifth (4:34.40). Senior Jeff Byrd and junior Ian Stavros took fourth (4:12.16) and fifth (4:16.79), respectively, in the event.
Nugent was able to place second in the 200 fly (2:02.38), with Carrington scoring a point with a sixth-place (2:10.83) finish. Stavros and junior Brandon Carr provided the Mountaineers with more points following Camp’s 200 fly win. Stavros took fourth place (1:57.69), while Carr finished in fifth (1:57.69).
Nelson and Layne took fourth (53.82) and sixth (56.01), respectively, in the 100 free, while Squires finished second (47.07) followed by Eichenseer in third (47.26) for the men.
Smith took fourth (2:06.40) in the 200 back, while junior Sara Conner also scored points with a sixth-place (2:11.60) finish. Sophomore Leo Downes had a great swim for the men, finishing in third (1:56.71).
Fodor placed second (5:02.08) behind Burnett in the 500 free, while Storie took fifth place (5:11.00). Simmonds, O’Malley and Querciagrossa all finished in the top five for the men.
Joining O’Neill on the boards was freshman Richard Pokorny who took third on both the 1-meter (258.37) and 3-meter (257.02). Freshman Kelsey Palis scored for the women with a fifth-place finish on both the 1–meter (139.35) and 3-meter (157.65).
Freshman Melissa Schreiber and McCann took fourth (2:24.80) and fifth (2:26.38), respectively in the 200 breast.
The final event of the afternoon was the 400 free relay where the team of Burnett, Nelson, Conner and Fodor finished in third place (3:33.41) for the women. The men’s meet came down to the final race and Eichenseer, Squires, Goldthorpe and Camp were able to finished first (3:03.68) to claim the victory.
The Mountaineers are scheduled to be back in action with the women’s team traveling to Marshall on Saturday, Oct. 23. The meet is scheduled begin at 2 p.m.
