Women's swimming and diving continues strong start against local foes

Minutes after its sweep of UMBC and an undefeated Towson side, after the long, winding line of handshakes had faded from sight, the Terrapin women's swimming and diving team celebrated with a performance of the university's fight song in the Eppley Center Natatorium.

The familiar words rang out as little more than half of the men's team looked on from the pool deck. Another group of teammates could only observe from the stands, barred from competing Saturday after at least one undisclosed violation of team policy, according to coach Sean Schimmel.

Their conspicuous absence from the pool dampened an otherwise successful performance from the Terp women (4-1), who continued their strong start to the season with a 240-60 thumping of the Retrievers (2-3) and 203-97 win against the Tigers (7-1) on the eve of the Terrapin Cup.

"The women came in here today with focus and willingness, and we talked about letting our strengths show, letting our depth show and letting the work that we've done the first two months of the season show," Schimmel said. "I think that certainly came through today with some of their times and how they were beating people to the wall."

Junior Ginny Glover and senior Annie Fittin set the tone of the meet for the women early with first- and third-place finishes, respectively, in the 200 free.

"I thought the meet went really well. We came in here thinking that we didn't have an option to lose," said Fittin, a co-captain. "We needed to win these meets. I think this is a great assurance that we're the most solid team in the state of Maryland now."

Alexa Hamilton (100 and 200 breast), Glover (200 free), Fittin (100 free and fly), Jenni Roberts (100 back and 200 IM), Megan Lafferty (50 free) and Addi Koelle (200 back) all won individual events for the Terp women.

The shorthanded men's team (1-4) picked up its first win of the season against Towson (0-8), 191-93, but fell to UMBC (4-1), 172-114, in the double dual meet.

Junior co-captain Andrew Relihan and standout freshman John Hauser were among those who did not compete in Saturday's meet, forcing changes to the lineup.

"There's definitely some people that were swimming things that weren't typically what they would swim," senior Matt Gruszecki said. "But it wasn't too much out of character."

"Certainly, we were challenged today with our depth," Schimmel said. "I was happy with how the guys raced and put themselves on the line. So we got some of those results today."

Co-captain Mitch Challacombe, Roger Dent, Sean Stewart and Gruszecki helped picked up the slack for the Terps, while diver Eric Sachs won the 3-meter (293.10) and placed second in the 1-meter (247.50).

castello@umdbk.com