By Alex Kurtz, Sports Editor
Both the men and women’s swimming and diving teams struggled at a dual meet against Gettysburg and Messiah on Saturday, Nov. 10 in Gettysburg, Pa.
While the men’s team pulled out a 168–91 win over Messiah, it would be the only team win for either squad at the meet. Gettysburg would pick up a 153–103 win over the men.
The women’s team however fell to both Messiah and Gettysburg by scores of 132–128 and 162–98, respectively.
Despite the losses from both teams, there were multiple strong individual performances for the River Hawks.
Freshman Eric Towse continued his excellent 2018-2019 campaign thus far by winning three events on the day. He took the 100-yard backstroke, 200-yard backstroke and the 200-yard individual medley with times of 53.69, 1:57.20 and 2:00.6, respectively.
Senior Ryan Nathan finished second in the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:29.66.
The 400-yard freestyle relay team of freshman Diego Mendieta, senior James Orzolek, and sophomores Owen Kelly and Brett Walker finished second with a time of 3:20.39 on the day. Mendieta also finished second in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 53.76.
For the women’s team, junior Caitlin Kelly finished first in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:20.09 where she narrowly beat out Gettysburg’s Katherine Sears by 0.25 of a second. Kelly also came in second in the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:56.08.
Sophomore Olivia Fravel also took first in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:08.83, which beat out the second place finisher by three seconds.
Senior Katie Willis also placed second in the 200-yard freestyle in 2:02.19 and had times of 55.77 and 25.61 in the 100-yard freestyle and 50-yard freestyle respectively.
Sophomore Tori Weems also teamed up with Fravel, Kelly and Willis to place second in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:46.00.
While this is an uncharacteristic loss for both the men and women’s team, they will look to rebound and continue their run of dominance in the Landmark Conference.
Both Susquehanna swimming and diving teams will return to action on Thursday, Nov. 29 when they travel to the TPSC Invitational in Kenyon, Pa.