By Brandon Farren, Contributing Writer
The Susquehanna women’s swimming and diving team continued their dynasty with an eighth-consecutive Landmark Conference Championship and the men’s team placed second on Saturday, Feb. 16 in Germantown, Maryland.
The Women’s team turned in an all-around dominant performance, setting multiple school records in route to their eighth straight conference title.
Junior Katie Willis broke the school record in the 50yard freestyle not once, but three times, culminating in blisteringly fast time of 23.75. This earned her the conference title in the event, a spot inside the top 20 in Division III and a NCAA B-cut. Later, Willis would also be a part of the 200-yard freestyle relay team who set the school record with a time of 1:36.88.
Willis was far from a one woman show as the rest of the Susquehanna women’s team also contributed with memorable times and impressive performances all around.
In the 500-freestyle, Megan Shaffer and Caitlin Kelly both secured top-three finishes with Shaffer’s time placing her in Susquehanna’s record books for one of the top-10 fastest runs in school history.
In the 200-yard individual medlay, freshman Tori Weems placed third with a 2:13.8 and freshman Brooke Boes also reached the podium with an eighth-place finish in the same event. Junior Krista White went on to claim a school record of her own in the three-meter diving finals with a score of 327.75.
Susquehanna compiled a score of 848, more than 100 points higher than second place Catholic University.
Boes described the feeling of the weekend by saying “we left our ‘land’ mark on the event.”
“This season was a lot different than all the other ones. It was all of us coming together in the end to get to the level of excitement and strength to come out at champs,” Shaffer said. “I do not think we could have done it individually, we really had to come together as a team to get the win that we did.”
The men’s team turned in an impressive performance of their own and walked away with a second-place finish.
Sophomore David Grove broke the school record for the 100-yard backstroke twice. The men’s 200-yard freestyle relay team kept things going and took second place with a time of 1:25.71.
Junior James Orzolek did his part and claimed second place in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 21.50 seconds. Grove’s record-breaking first leg gave the River Hawks an early lead and with help from his teammates, the group went on to finish second in the 400-yard medley relay.
Sophomore Owen Madden added a second-place finish to his weekend while Brett Walker collected points with his fourth placed finish in the 100-yard freestyle. Freshman Luke Henry narrowly beat out a challenger and claimed a fifth-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle.
The men’s team finished with 624.5 points.