Saturday, Jan. 20, Elizabethtown College’s men’s and women’s swim teams competed on the road against Albright College.
Albright took the win over the women’s team 144-104. The Lions won women’s 200-yard medley relay to start off the afternoon. Senior Dru Schneider, juniors Erika Cole and Cheryl Errichetti and sophomore Sadie Hawkins finished in second place, 10 seconds behind the first-place team. The Jays finished in 2:06.02, edging out the third-place Albright team by 2.5 seconds.
Sophomore Sara Lingo finished first in both of her individual events. She finished the 1650-yard freestyle in 20:04.38, winning the race by 27 seconds. Lingo and first-year teammate Julia Argentati took first and second, respectively, for Etown in the 200-yard backstroke. Lingo earned a time of 2:26.14 and Argentati finished in 2:33.15.
First-year Caroline Hill was the other individual winner for the Jays at Saturday’s meet, taking first in the 200-yard IM. Cole, Lingo, senior Megan Anderson and first-year Cate Falkenstein won the 800-yard freestyle relay, the last event of the meet for the women’s side.
Albright also defeated the men’s team 144-112. Etown finished second and third in the 200-yard medley relay. Junior Ben Spangler, sophomores Casey Marshall and Alec Schneider and first-year Alex Pecher were out-touched by Albright by less than one second, finishing in 1:42.04. Etown’s B team finished in 1:44.57. All six relay teams that competed in the event finished within 11 seconds of each other.
Etown took first and second in the 200-yard freestyle with first-year Austin Dolaway getting the win in 1:55.26. Junior Tommy Kuhn came in second in 1:57.76. The Jays swept the top three in the 100-yard backstroke. Marshall and juniors Nick Petrella and Sam Hirshberg finished first, second and third, respectively. Marshall was the only swimmer to finish under 1:00, taking the win with a time of 59.91. Petrella finished in 1:00.71, and Hirshberg out-touched the fourth-place Albright finisher by .38, finishing in 1:02.42.
Spangler got an individual win in the 200-yard breaststroke and Etown junior Guillaume Guoronc took third. Guoronc also finished third in the 100-yard breaststroke and took first in the 200-yard IM, finishing in 2:15.17, beating sophomore teammate Brian Sylvestri by .01.
First-year J.D. Sterbens was the only Etown swimmer on the men’s team to compete in the 200-yard butterfly, in which he placed fourth. “I feel I have improved since the beginning of the season,” Sterbens said. “If someone told me at the beginning of the season the events I would be swimming now, I would’ve thought they were crazy.”
Marshall, Pecher, Schneider and senior David Foery closed out the afternoon with a win in the 800-yard freestyle relay, finishing with a time of 7:51.72.
“Over the next few weeks, we are all trying to eat healthier and take good care of ourselves,” Sterbens said. “This will allow us to perform better in practice and as a team overall.”
With two meets left in the regular season before the Landmark Conference Championships in February, the women’s team has a 4-6 record overall and are 2-3 in the Landmark Conference. The men are 4-4 overall and 1-3 in the Landmark.
“Everyone on the team shows a lot of dedication and determination that I know will pay off during Landmarks,” Sterbens said.
The men’s and women’s teams will both be back on the road next Saturday, Jan. 27 to take on McDaniel College at 1 p.m.
