BALTIMORE - The UMBC men's and women's swimming and diving teams resume action on Saturday, Jan. 18 when they return to the Jim McKay Natatorium on the campus of George Mason University to take on the Patriots.
The action gets underway at 11:00 a.m.
The Retrievers competed at the Patriot Invitational at GMU from Nov. 21-23. Junior Kai Wisner (Syracuse, N.Y.) and senior Ilia Rattsev (Moscow, Russia) put together outstanding meets during that competition. Wisner earned the Retrievers' second gold medal of the competition, capturing the 1650-yard freestyle. The junior outdistanced the competition by nearly seven seconds, touching the wall in a time of 15:33.79. Rattsev briefly set a meet record in the 100-yard freestyle in Saturday preliminaries, finishing first with a time of 44.70. He came in at 44.61 in the finals, which was good enough for third place.
On the women's side, senior Hayley Commite (Ellicott City, Md./Howard) completed an outstanding meet by placing ninth in the 100-yard freestyle (51.62) and 11th in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:24.38).
But it was junior Natalija Marin (Belgrade, Serbia) who posted the top finish of the meet for UMBC. She finished fourth in the 200-yard butterfly, posting a mark of 2:04.23.
Last Time Out: The squads opened 2020 by defeating Howard in a meet at the UMBC Aquatic Complex on Jan. 4. The men dominated, taking first in 12 of the 14 swimming events, and sweeping both diving events, en route to the 135-129 victory. The women finished first in every event and recorded a 134-120 victory.
On the men's side, Rattsev was a part of three of the four pool records that fell during the meet. He was a member of both the record-setting 400 Medley Relay and the 800 Free Relay. In addition, his leg of 1:39.62 in the 800 Free Relay broke the pool record of 1:39.75 for fastest 200 Free previously set in 2006. Rattsev teamed in that relay with Satori Dobbie (Christchurch, New Zealand) Gabe Laracuente (Gaithersburg, Md.) and Niklas Weigelt (Clayton, Calif.) to win the race in 6:44.84 and shatter the previous record of 6:51.48 set in 1991 by Drexel.
The 400 Medley Relay team of Dobbie, Rattsev, Garrett Wlochowski (Manchester, Conn.), and Luis Galvan (Torreon, Mexico) won its heat in a pool record time of 3:21.64, besting the previous record 3:22.35 set just last year.
Three Retriever women posted a pair of wins. In the pool, freshman Makayla Ludwick (Gulf Breeze, Fla.) won the 100 (55.74) and 200 (1:58.10) yard freestyle events, and senior Emily Vance (Finksburg, Md./Westminster) captured the 50 (27.9) and 100 (1:00.08) backstroke events. In the diving well, senior Devin Gromen (Crofton, Md./Arundel) produced her best meet of the season, edging two Bison divers to win the 1-meter event (205.35), then easily besting the six-diver field to win the 3-meter (223.05) board.
Honored: The Retrievers picked up six America East Swimmers and Divers of the Week in the first half of the campaign and swept the awards to open the new decade.
UMBC America East Weekly Award Winners
Oct. 16 – Male Swimmer: Tiago Asakawa, Male Diver: Ben Parker
Nov. 6 – Female Swimmer: Natalija Marin; Male Swimmer: Ilia Rattsev
Nov. 20 - Male Swimmer: Ilia Rattsev; Male Diver: Will Henrickson
Jan.7 - Female Swimmer: Sotiria Neofytou; Female Diver: Devin Gromen; Male Swimmer: Ilia Rattsev, Male Diver: Ben Parker
Last Meet vs. Mason: UMBC faced George Mason, along with Navy, in October of the 2016-17 season, the freshman campaigns for this year's senior class. The women defeated GMU, 207-93, while the men prevailed, 208-92. Rattsev won the 200 freestyle and finished third in the 100 free, while swimming the lead leg on the winning 400 freestyle relay squad. Luis Galvan (Torreon, Mexico) placed third in the 100 yard breaststroke. For the women, Vance placed fourth and fifth in the 100 and 200 yard backstroke events, Commite took fifth in the 50 free, while diver Abby Biddulph (Egg Harbor City, N.J.) placed second and third on the 1- and 3-meter boards respectively.
Next Up: The Retrievers conclude the regular season and celebrate Senior Day on Saturday, Jan. 25 when they host East Carolina. The meet gets underway at 1:00 p.m.
