Swim and Dive Dominates in Conference

Steve Morano
MSMU Class of 2024

(5/2024) In early January 2024, the members of the Mount St. Mary’s men’s and women’s swim and dive team gathered at an aquatic center outside of Orlando, Florida with training and more importantly, winning, on their mind. Coming off their first season in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Association, the team had weathered their freshman year in the conference pretty well, and with the looming conference championships in February almost upon the team, this break from racing, plus the good weather, was a timely reprieve from the sporting calendar thus far. This mid-season preparation was an interruption from the rigorous and sometimes monotonous six-month long season that somewhat uniquely crosses over both academic semesters at the school.

But before this training camp in Florida, the Mountaineers competed in a hard fought and tiring fall half to their season. A quick start to the season began at the American University Relays when the Mount raced in a field made up of American, Georgetown, Howard, and George Mason. With the women’s team placing 4th and the men’s team 5th, personal success defined the first invitational meet of the year. The Men’s 3x100 Yard Breaststroke Relay team included Jacob Wallace (C’24), Griffin Distler (C’24), and Aidan Grady (C’25) placing 3rd in the event rankings, and the Women’s 200 Yard Medley Relay team made up of Hanna Aggen (C’27), Christine Lazari (C’26), Dahna Yoon (C’24), and Maddy Samuels (C’24) placing 4th in their respective race.

In the follow up dual-meet against American in Emmitsburg on October 6th, the season improved as the Mount swept both 200 Meter Medley Relays, close wins in the Men’s 100 Meter Freestyle and Women’s 50 Meter Freestyle, as well as wins in the Men’s 50 Meter Butterfly and Women’s 100 Freestyle. This led to a competitive finish in their first dual-meet. Both teams fell short against Howard the next week, but comfortable three-digit wins against Messiah on October 21st put the team in high spirits as they travelled back to Emmitsburg to face the rival Virginia Military Institute on Senior Day.

With a formidable 179.5-108.5 win on the women’s side of the day, with top performances from the relay team of Aggen, Lazari, Samuels, and Abby Steckiel (C’26), the sights of spectators turned to the men’s field; specifically, the final race of the afternoon: Men’s 200 Meter Freestyle Relay. The relay team, made up of Austin Toland (C’26), Lucas Hancock (C’27), Antonio Gurri (C’27), and Nic Santorelli (C’24) were under pressure to perform, as the scores were close going into the final event. Toland finished his leg of the race at 23.84 seconds, nearly a second off VMI’s Matthew Picard’s first leg of 24.32 seconds. From then, the middle racers on both teams traded off close legs of no more than a couple milliseconds apart. The final leg of the race then came down to Santorelli, the team’s anchor, and VMI’s Dalton Cosner. With both swimmers tied neck and neck heading toward the wall, it was Santorelli who touched the tiles first, he had beaten Cosner by 00:08 milliseconds. The pool deck erupted as the men’s team had beaten the Keydets in the final race of the day to make it a 151-142 win in Emmitsburg.

"That was just awesome, the pool was electric," said Seth Garbanzos (C’25), one of the captains of the men’s team. The captains of the Mount’s men’s and women’s swim and dive teams have some of the more unique responsibilities of any of the athletic teams on campus. "It was a team vote. We had a couple of names to choose from that they wanted to be captain who had leadership skills." added Julie Veilleux (C’24), one of the senior captains of the women’s team. Sofie Allison (C’24) added that the coaches and training staff of the team wanted prospective leaders to make an application and write a letter detailing their leadership qualities and why they wanted to be a captain in the first place. That leadership feeds into many duties that would be reserved for coaches in other Division 1 programs such as planning events and organizing team meetings. This included the scheduling and running of swim lessons that the team runs to help raise money for the program. Another senior captain for the men’s team, Jonah Hancock (C’24) expanded on this leadership and told of a captain’s duty, not only at practice but on race day. "Swimming is a very mental sport, so being there for your teammates is one thing, not getting too emotional because you are a leader on the team, and being there not only for when the team is down but for when the team is up helps a lot."

After a tiring fall half of the season, the team was split in two, with one half going to the Franklin and Marshall Invitational and the other half going to the Eastern College Athletic Conference Winter Championships in East Meadow, New York. At first, racing against a field of schools may seem a daunting task compared to the head-to-head competition of a dual meet. But from the perspective some, it seems more individualistic. "There are a lot of swimmers at these midseason meets, but I would say you feel more individualized as a swimmer, obviously you want your school to win, but that’s the time where I [and the team] can improve my personal goals," added Garbanzos. Jacob Wallace, the final men’s team captain added that in the pressure of racing at a de facto conference meet that execution is key not only for improving individual’s personal times, but for point winning for the team as a whole.

After returning from Florida in January, the team had raced in a two-week dual meet corridor against Lafayette and Loyola before travelling to Geneva, Ohio for the MAAC Conference Championships in mid-February. The SPIRE Academy and Institute, the pool that hosted the championships this year is reminiscent for many on the team, as that is where the Northeast Conference Championships were held in 2021 when many of the seniors on the team were in their first year of the program. This may have been the reason for some of their success, but preparation and experience is what helped many succeed as multiple school records were set at the meet. The top of the podium for the Men’s 50 Meter Freestyle belonged to Toland as he set the new school record in the event with a time of 20.12 seconds. And during the same session, the relay team of Aggen, Lazari, Samuels, and Meghan Speicher (C’25) broke the school record for the Women’s 200 Meter Freestyle Relay with a time of 1:34.41.

The second-place finish of the Women’s 200 Meter Freestyle Relay earned the team a spot at the CSCAA National Invitational Championship in Ocala, Florida. But they were not alone as four members of the men’s team, Wallace, Grady, Toland, and Jason Fitch (C’24) earned a spot at the prestigious invitational.