Waterville, Maine - The Colby Men and Women's Swimming and Diving Team's opened up the new year at home in a competition against Middlebury. Although the Women's team fell just short 141 to 159 they had some key positive takeaways from the event. As for the Men, they were able to overcome the Panthers 162.5 to 130.5 resulting in their fourth straight victory.
Both team's kicked off the event finishing first in the 200 medley relay. The Women (Laurel Skorina, Kellen Mottl, Gabriella Landau, and Ann Tolan) finished with a time of 1:48.45 and the Men (
Brandon Xiong,
Jerome Wiater,
Neil Mortimer, and
Shaun Kronenwetter) with a time of 1:34.36. The Women also took the win in the 200 freestyle relay (Lily Moy, Rayna Hata, Tolan, and Alex Mayo) with a time of 1:40.06.
In the Men's individual events,
Nate Cordick came away with a win in the 1000 freestyle with as time of 9:59.28 while Xiong grabbed a victory in the 50 backstroke at 24.83. For the 100 backstroke
Spencer Cohen set the pace with a time of 52.70 for a first place finish. In the 100 Butterfly, Mortimer finished first (50.40) with
Ethan Chang in second (52.20). Mortimer also won the 50 butterfly with a time of 22.24.
On the Women's side, Mottl won the 100 breaststroke at 1:07.60 while
Alexander MacLennan took first for the men (59.29). Tolan won the 50 freestyle (24.14) and 100 freestyle (53.85) with Moy right behind in both events (24.97, 54.46). The Men went on to take first and second in the 50 freestyle as well with Kronenwetter finishing with a time of 21.21 and
Allen Zhu at 21.74. On top of that, Colby swept the podium in the 100 freestyle with
Carson Rehkopf in first (47.58), Kronenwetter second (48.55), and Xiong third (48.85). Lastly, the Mules went on to win both 50 breaststrokes with Mottl finishing at a time of 30.74 and Wiater at a time of 27.48.
In diving, Avery Rappaport continued her dominance taking first in the one meter with a score of 278.10 setting a new Colby record (followed by Monet Meyer with 243.74) and in the three meter with a score of 269.47.
Next up, the Aqua Mules will head down to New London, Conn. on January 16th to face the Conn. College Camels.
