UR Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving teams looked to cap off their seasons this weekend at the University of Chicago, competing for the UAA Championship.
Along with a string of mid-table finishes across the weekend, freshman diver Stephen Savchik placed seventh overall on the 1-meter board on the first day after posting an NCAA regional qualifying score in the preliminary round, and junior Arlen Fan broke a school record in the 100-meter breaststroke.
The women have a record of 10–2 on the season and had an exceptional showing at the Liberty League Championships in December, where they took home the title for the eighth year in a row.
At the same meet, the men ranked second behind RPI, and freshman Eric Sonheim was named Liberty League Rookie of the Year, making him the eighth male swimmer from UR in a row receive the honor.
In Chicago, UR competed against conference powerhouse Emory University, whose men’s and women’s teams have been UAA champions for 18 years running.
On Thursday, swimming events for both teams began, as senior diver Danielle Neu tied for third place with on the three-meter board. The women’s 200-meter freestyle relay, consisting of sophomore Becca Selznick, freshman Erica Hughes and seniors Khamai Simpson and Emily Simon, finished their race in fifth place. Hughes, Simon, senior Alex Veech, and freshman Monica Jackson made up the 400-meter relay team, which finished sixth.
On the same day, Sonheim, sophomores Evan Villafranca and Danny Aronson and senior Alden Brewer formed the men’s 200-meter freestyle relay team, which placed seventh in the event’s finals. Upon the conclusion of Thursday’s events, the men’s team sat in eighth place, with the women sitting two spots above.
On Friday, the third day of competition, Veech finished in the eighth spot of the 100-meter breaststroke finals, while also swimming in the 200-meter medley relay alongside Hughes, Selznick, and freshman Caitlynn Weeden. They finished in sixth place with a time of 1:48.34.
The women had five other finalists on the day, including sophomores Shannon Cahalan and Alyssa Gardiner, who both swam in the 400-meter individual medley, finishing 16th and 24th, respectively. Jackson finished 11th in the 100-meter fly and 20th in the 100-meter breaststroke. In the 200-meter freestyle, Selznick placed 15th, with Simon coming in three spots behind her teammate.
The men’s team celebrated that evening Brewer’s 24th-place finish in the 100-meter fly, with sophomore Connor Virgile placing in the same spot in the 100-meter backstroke.
In the preliminaries, Fan posted a time of 56.79 seconds to beat Pat Davis’ record of 57.20, which he set at the 2014 UAA Championships.
Virgile, Brewer, and Fan also swam in the 200-meter medley relay along Aronson, posting time of 1:34.87 to finish in sixth place. A seventh-place finish came from Sonheim, freshman Eric Weidman, sophomore Eric Feirouz, and junior Lee Stovall in the 800-meter freestyle relay. Back on the diving board, Savchik finished third on the 3-meter board. Going into Saturday, the final day of competition, the men moved up one spot to seventh, while the women stayed in sixth place.
Four distance swimmers placed in top 24 spots in Saturday’s 1,650-meter freestyle event, which included senior Jennifer Enos (14th), sophomore Tess Minigell (16th), freshman Marija Mitrovski (17th), and senior Katie Konopka (24th). On the one-meter diving board, Neu placed fourth, with freshman Paige Hayward and sophomore Gill Gingher, placing 15th and 16th, respectively.
A multitude of top 24 finishes to close the day for the women left them in sixth place overall upon the conclusion of the competition, coming in ahead of Case Western Reserve University and Brandeis University. In the 1,650-meter freestyle, three UR men placed in the top 22, while Fan and Weidman both placed in the top 24 in the 200-meter breaststroke. This allowed them to maintain their ran king of seventh place overall, which capped of the weekend.
For the 19th time in a row, both the men’s and women’s teams from Emory University took home the UAA title, advancing them to the NCAA finals in March.
