FAIRFAX, VA. – The UMBC men's and
women's swimming and diving teams picked up six more wins and broke
three more meet records Saturday to sweep the Patriot Invitational
on the third and final day at George Mason. The men
scored 1089 to pick up their sixth consecutive win at the event,
while the women earned 1096.5 points to pick up their fourth
victory in the last five years.
Senior Abbey
McKenney (Wilmington, Del./Brandywine) had another day for
the history books to help pace the Retrievers. Just a
day after setting a new school record in the 100 back, McKenney
wrote her name at the top of another UMBC list, this time in the
200 back (2:00.39), claiming gold and while also setting a new meet
record.
As if two records were not enough, the senior took home an
individual win in the 100 free before leading the 400 free relay
into the record books as well. The team of McKenney,
sophomore Talor
Tadena (Orangevale, Calif./Bella Vista), senior Ashley
Miller (New Smyrna Beach, Fla./New Smyrna Beach), and
sophomore Erika
Ronning (Western Springs, Ill./Lyons Townships) set a new
meet standard finishing in 3:24.87.
Coming in to the day with the lead, the Retrievers never looked
threatened. In the day's first event, the 1650 free,
junior Amy
Fay (Haverhill, Mass./Haverhill) placed third, while
senior Pink
Kinanti (Jakarta, Indonesia/The Bolles School (Fla.)) took
sixth, junior Katie
Powlen (Southborough, Mass./Algonquin Regional) finished
ninth, and senior Ashley
Sippel (Rockville, Md./Thomas Wootton) placed 12th to gain
points for UMBC.
Then, in the 200 back, as McKenney set a record-setting pace,
teammates Jennifer
Kotonias (Burtonsville, Md./Academy of Holy Cross)
and Kathryn
Moorby (Cape May, N.J./Lower Cape May Regional) were not
far behind, claiming silver and bronze,
respectively. Later in the day, Kotonias claimed top
honors of her own in the 200 fly (2:01.58).
On the men's side freshman Rob
Breen (Danvers, Mass./St. John's Prep) started the day
gaining silver in the 1650 free with sophomores Reed Neuendorf (Blauvelt, N.Y./Tappan Zee)
and Charlie Melesh (Annapolis, Md./Annapolis/Pfeiffer)
claiming valuable points with finishes of fifth and sixth.
Sophomore Johan Rohtla (Tallinn, Estonia/Tallinn Secondary
Science) picked up the Retrievers' first win of the day for the
men, taking the win in the 200 back (1L48.38).
Junior Pierre De Waal (Pretoria, South Africa/Tuks
Sport/Cleveland State) continued his fast start with another win in
the 200 fly (1:48.15), recording a meet record time in the
process. In addition, Mark Tracy (Chelmsford, Mass./Chelmsford) led a
group of four UMBC winners to place four through seven in the
event.
The Retrievers now have the remainder of the 2011 calendar year
off from competition as they prepare to defend their conference
titles come February.
