Hanna Aggen
On Feb. 14 the Mount’s swim and dive team started off their MAAC conference championship meet with a bang. The 200 Medley relay of Hanna Aggen (C‘27), Christina Lazari (C‘26), Meghan Speicher (C‘25) and Madelynne Samuels (C‘24) broke their own school record with a time of 1:42.23, placing second. This would be the first of 12 total records broken during the meet.
Immediately following that record-breaking swim, the men’s 200 Medley relay made up of Jason Fitch (C‘24), Aidan Grady (C‘25), Jacob Wallace (C’24) and Austin Toland (C‘26), broke the school record set at last year’s MAAC championship also placing second in the event.
The men carried that momentum into the 800 Freestyle relay later that night, when Jonah Hancock (C‘24), Nicholas Santorelli (C‘24), Antonio Gurri (C’27) and John Baroody (C‘26) broke the previous school record from 2019 in a time of 6:56.89. During the preliminary session of day two, Toland broke his own 50 Freestyle record in a time of 20.12.
Going into finals, the team of Samuels, Aggen, Speicher and Lazari, were seeded second in the 200 Freestyle relay. The women placed second and beat another school record, with a time of 1:34:41. Samuels, Lazari and Speicher were all finalists for the individual 50-yard Freestyle, with Lazari tying for third overall. The men’s 200 Freestyle relay finished in fifth place, with a team of Toland, Fitch, Griffin Distler (C‘24) and Lucas Hancock (C‘27).
Toland and Hancock were both A finalists, with Toland taking the gold, and Hancock placing 8th. Other finalists for the evening included Santorelli, in the 500 freestyle, and Lauren Wetzel (C‘25) in the 200 Individual Medley.
In the Friday morning preliminary session, the mountaineers showed up, bringing back 20 swimmers for the final’s session. Eight of the individuals made it into the A final of their events that evening, not including the 400 Medley relays to come. Both the men and women broke the school records for the 400 Medley relay.
For the women, the team of Aggen, Lazari, Samuels and Abigail Steckiel (C’26), brought home a time of 3:49.89, breaking the record the same team set earlier this season. For the men, the team of Fitch, Grady, Wallace and Toland, went a time of 3:16.83, nagging a second-place finish and another silver medal. During the individual swims that day, Fitch broke his 100 Backstroke record with a time of 48.24, and Christina Lazari broke her 100 Breaststroke record with a time of 1:02.31.
On the final day of the meet, the mountaineers were standing very strong. The mountaineers were heading into finals with 22 individuals, including 21 swimmers and one diver. Graduate Student, Timmy Bonner, finished 8th in the men’s 1-meter diving final with a score of 167.10.
During the swimming finals, Liam Rooney (C‘27) beat the 200 Butterfly record with a time of 1:53.52. The final two races of the meet were the 400 Freestyle relays. The team of Lazari, Samuels, Speicher and Madison Murphy (C’27), finished in a record-breaking time of 3:26.86. This time got them a second-place finish, taking over Iona College for overall team scores.
The women finished in fifth place overall, with a score of 312.5 points. This is an improvement over last year’s eighth-place finish. The men closed out the championship with another record-breaking relay. The team of Toland, Distler, Hancock and Santorelli brought home a time of 3:04.81. The men finished in seventh place with a final score of 294, holding their originally projected standing.
From March 14-16, the Mount will send eight swimmers to compete in the CSCAA National Invitational Championship in Florida.
