Fairfax, Va. – The UMBC swimming and diving teams swept a dual meet at George Mason's Jim McKay Natatorium on Saturday. The women won eight events en route to a 166-127 victory, while the men captured ten as they triumphed, 165-133.

Both squads have posted three consecutive dual meet victories heading into the regular season finale and Senior Day/Alumni Day versus East Carolina next Saturday, Jan. 25.

"I am so proud of our program today," said head coach Chad Cradock. "Our men and women are competing at their best as we head into the championship season and that is exactly where we want to be. We met an extremely strong George Mason team and they helped us be the best we could be."

Junior Natalija Marin (Belgrade, Serbia) paced the women, besting the field in the 200 freestyle and 200 butterfly and placing second in the 100 yard butterfly.

On the men's side, senior Ilia Rattsev (Moscow, Russia) continued his brilliant final campaign, capturing three freestyle (50, 100, 200) events. Junior Kai Wisner (Syracuse, N.Y.) excelled in the distance events, winning the 500 and 1000 freestyles and placing second in the 200 individual medley.

The women's first event of the day was pivotal, as the 200 medley relay team of senior Emily Vance (Finksburg, Md./Westminster), freshman Jenna Gwinn (Baltimore, Md./Mount de Sales), senior Sotiria Neofytou (Limassol, Cyprus) and sophomore Tonia Papapertrou (Nicosia, Cyprus) reached the wall just .12 seconds ahead of the Patriots' top foursome in a time of 1:46.61.

In the latter part of the meet, UMBC put things away as the Retrievers captured gold, silver and bronze in the 200 yard breaststroke and the 100 yard butterfly. Sophomore Emma Bridges (Foxboro, Mass.) captured the former event in 2:25.27, while Neofytou led the UMBC trio in the fly at 56.71.

The men captured gold and silver in four events. Wisner (9:25.77) edged teammate sophomore Sam Jyawook (Franklin, Tenn.) in the 1000, while Rattsev (45.89) just out-touched sophomore Tiago Asakawa (Sumaré, Brazil) (45.96) in the 100 freestyle. Sophomore Luka Zuric (Setauket, N.Y.) nipped senior Garrett Wlochowski (Manchester, Conn.) in the 200-yard backstroke and sophomore Jimmy Dwyer (New City, N.Y.) told gold over Wisner in the 200 IM with a mark of 1:54.40.

Other UMBC winners:

Women

1000 freestyle – Vanessa Esposito (Montreal, Quebec, Canada)

50 freestyle – Hayley Committee (Ellicott City, Md./Howard)

200 backstroke – Caroline Sargent (Trumbull, Conn.)

500 freestyle – Kylie Kelly (Hagerstown, Md.)

Men

100 backstroke – Wlochowski

200 butterfly – Ethan Riser (Austin, Texas)

100 butterfly – Satori Dobbie (Christchurch, New Zealand)

The meet versus the Pirates gets underway at 1:00 p.m. at the UMBC Aquatic Complex. Senior Day ceremonies will precede the competition.