The men and women’s swimming and diving teams combined to go 0-6 when they traveled to West Point, N.Y. Jan. 21 for a quad-meet with Army, George Mason University and Old Dominion University.
Ballance strong point for men’s team
Bobby Ballance posted two wins on the afternoon in the 100- and 200-yard backstroke with times of 52.45 and 1:52.23, respectively.
Matt Wurm also had a strong outing for the Eagles, finishing second in the 100-yard backstroke at 52.69 and third in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:52.85.
Aside from Ballance and Wurm, Ming Ong recorded a top-three finish as his time of 58.87 was good for third in the 100-yard breaststroke.
Charlie Taffet finished 11th in the 200 breaststroke at 2:19.10, with Dan Francis finishing shortly after and posting a time of 2:19.22.
The team of Ballance, Ong, Wurm and Robert Feasely placed third in the 200-yard medley relay, while Sam Miller swapped for Ong in the 400 and the team finished fourth.
The men’s team fell to Army 222-70, George Mason 198-101 and Old Dominion 211-80 on the day. Army finished 3-0, ODU ended at 2-1 and GMU concluded the quad-meet at 1-2.
Breen and Parker victorious for women’s squad
Leah Breen edged Army’s Alyssa Tran by six-tenths of a second to win the 50-yard freestyle and become one of AU’s top performers at the meet.
Breen nearly won again in the 100 free, but finished third after posting a time of 53.24. Army’s Paige Brink took the race at 53.09, with Emma Forbes coming in second at 53.14.
Parker was victorious in the three-meter diving event with a score of 229.7, and finished sixth of 14 in the one-meter event.
Other individual results saw Grace Ibrahim placing fifth in the 100 breaststroke, and Miriam Crispo finishing fifth in the 100 and 200 butterfly and 400 IM.
The team of Breen, Crispo, Ellie Shetter and Alex Ramdin completed the 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:44.06, which placed them fifth out of seven.
The women’s team suffered the same fate as the men, finishing 0-3 at the meet.
Army defeated the Eagles 219-74, George Mason prevailed 209-81 and Old Dominion triumphed 221-72. ODU finished the quad-meet at 3-0, while George Mason and Army both ended the day at 1-1-1.
The Eagles will head to the Navy Invitational Jan. 28, with the Patriot League Championships scheduled to get underway Feb. 16.
