Sports
Hamilton swims hard but falls to Union on senior day
By Mary Lundin ’19
January 26, 2017
Tags sports
After a tough loss against Rochester Institute of Technology the previous Saturday, the Hamilton Continentals swimming and diving teams posted excellent performances in both men’s and women’s events on Jan. 20, but unfortunately could not pull out wins against a strong Union squad. This home meet at the Bristol Pool against Union College was the Continentals’ seventh meet of the season and second to last meet before the NESCAC Championships; it was also the meet at which Hamilton honored its 15 seniors.
At this last home meet of the season, the women honored their eight seniors, Hannah Mooney, Elizabeth Barry, Genevieve Caffrey, Sarah Duncan, Carly Harten, Meredith Manchester, Annali Vernon and Rachel Williams. For the Hamilton women’s swimming and diving team, excellent individual performances were ubiquitous. Erin Lewis ’18 secured wins in both breaststroke events with times of 1:12.84 in the 100-yard breast and 2:36.60 in the 200 breast. Sadie Logan ’20 grabbed another victory in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:02.88 in addition to a second place finish in the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:17.63. Jessica Halladay ’18 was the runner-up in the 1,650 freestyle (18:37.24), the 100 breast (1:13.79) and the 400 individual medley (4:54.43), a performance which greatly augmented Hamilton’s final score. Lauren Klei ’18 finished in second place in the 200 free (1:59.64) and in third place in the 100 free (55.62), barely trailing Union’s Christy Brown (55.16). Hannah Mooney ’17 finished in second place in the 500 free (5:24.15) and was third in the 200 free (2:00.60). Emma Raynor ’18 finished third in the 100 back (1:54.50). Madeleine Lepesant ’19 finished in second place in the 200 butterfly (2:15.51). In the diving events, Jackie Bussgang ’19 grabbed the 1-meter springboard with 230.93 points and finished first in the three-meter board with 215.70 points.
Likewise, the men’s swimming and diving team honored seniors Luke Jeton, Scott Becker, Ryan Cassidy, Julian Ziaggi, Cole Bodak, Michael Burchesky and Tyler Rehor. The men had an excellent showing as well, including five event victories, one of which was a strong finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Jeton led off the relay while teammates Case Tatro ’18, Jake Lowy ’19 and Becker each swam competitive legs to post a final time of 3:18.12. Each member of the relay had previously competed and posted at least a third place victory in their individual events before returning to capture the win in the 400-yard freestyle relay at the conclusion of the meet. Becker secured a victory in the 100 freestyle in 49.76 seconds and immediately returned to finish in second place in the 50 freestyle, posting a time of 22.59 seconds, only 0.02 seconds behind Union’s Dan Steinmetz. Jeton finished immediately behind Becker in the 100 free with a time of 50.13 seconds, in addition to a second place finish in the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:04.64. Additionally, Tatro secured the top spot and Lowy finished in third place in a very competitive 200 freestyle race, in which the times of the top three finishers were within four tenths of a second of one another. Tatro posted a time of 1:49.25 and Lowy finished with a time of 1:49.64.
Ryan Cassidy ’17 and Evan Tatro ’20 secured Hamilton’s two other victories in the 1,650 freestyle and the 200 backstroke, respectively. Cassidy won the 1,650 freestyle with a time of 17:03.35 and went on to finish in second place in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:57.93 and in the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:23.52, only six seconds behind Union’s John Enquist. Tatro won the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:00.26 and captured a third place win in the 100 fly with a time of 56.32 seconds. Ben Cooper ’18 finished in second place in the 100 backstroke posting a time of 56.56 seconds, only about one second from capturing the win while also finishing in third place in the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:02.28. Cooper also finished in fifth place in the 100 butterfly with a time of 57.99 and led off the 200 yard medley relay, helping the Continentals finish in second place with a time of 1:41.35. In the diving events, Julian Ziaggi ’17 finished third in the three-meter springboard with 305.03 points. Both men’s and women’s teams compete in the final dual meet this season at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York on Saturday, Jan 28 at 2 p.m.