VMI Men's Swimming wins Tri-Meet, Women Drop Pair
LEXINGTON, Va. – The VMI men's swimming and diving team defeated Howard University (157.50 - 75.50) and Barton College (128 - 102) Saturday in a tri-meet Saturday in Clark King Pool, while the women were defeated by both opponents (Howard 136 - 91; Barton 117 - 104).
Stephen Hopta had two individual victories, taking first-place in the 200-freestyle in 1:45.03 and the 500-free in 4:49.33. Ryan Cooper won the 200-breastroke (2:14.59) and John Reed, Jr. earned victories in the one and three meter diving competitions with 234.08 and 190.8 finals points, respectively. The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Brady Gannon, Nick Palmieri, Hopta and Ryan Schmitz won in 1:27.79
Freshman Sophie Svoboba broke three school records and won three races Saturday, taking the 200-yard IM (2:12.19), the 200-backstroke (2:11.38) and the 200-breaststroke (2:31.74). Morgan Davis was second in the 200-butterfly in 2:20.15 and the 1,000 free in 11:39.07.
"We came in today with the goal of making our seniors final home meet a memorable one," said head coach Andrew Bretscher. "I think we acheived that by coming away with wins on the men's side and three new school records on the women's side. Both meets came down to the last few events, so it was a lot of fun to be in a back-and-forth competition like that. It would have been nice to get a win for our women today, but we performed as well as I could have hoped, so I'm happy how the weekend turned out."
Both teams are off next weekend but will compete October 27 against Davidson College in Davidson, N.C., with the women also facing UNC-Asheville in a tri-meet.
