By Robert Dickey
@Robert_Dickey21
ITHACA — Both men’s and women’s Springfield College swim team spent the first weekend of December in Ithaca, New York for the Ithaca Invitational. The meet went from Friday through Sunday and top performers emerged on both the men and women’s side of things.
The men finished impressively on both Friday and Saturday with scores of 180 and 521, respectively, to earn fourth place finishes both days. Sunday, the men posted a score of 613 that was good for seventh place. All three of the days the men were competing with ten other teams for finishing ranks.
On Friday, sophomore Connor Pennington came in second on the three-meter board with a score of 463.35 in an impressive effort. Freshman Luca Brashear came in fourth in the event as he scored a 435.55. Freshman Erik Jensen was unbelievable in the 500 freestyle event in which he put together a time of 4:44.45 which was good for sixth out of 65 competitors.
Pennington and Brashear continued to impress on the boards on Saturday as they were both in the top six finishers, this time on the one meter board. Pennington finished third with a score of 470.00 even and Brashear came in three spots behind in sixth place, posting a score of 409.55. Junior Sean Harnish had a good performance on Saturday as well as he finished ninth in the 200 freestyle, clocking in at 1:45.25.
On Sunday, sophomores Michael Allo and Anthony Soares performed well as they finished back to back in the 200 backstroke with times of 2:13.10 and 2:13.87 respectively.
The Springfield women also fared well in New York as they finished fifth out of 11 for all three days.
The story of Friday was top ten finishes. In the 200 IM, the Pride saw freshman Grace Moore and senior Olivia Paione finish in seventh and eighth place with times of 2:11.41 and 2:11.77, respectively.
On the diving boards, senior Sierra Skaza finished sixth on the one meter with a score of 432.75 and sophomore Bailee Carey claimed ninth place with a 401.75 score.
The divers continued to impress on Saturday on the three meter boards as Skaza finished in third place with a score 417.10 of and Carey came in ninth once again registering a score of 380.00 even.
On Sunday, Moore and Paione continued their impressive weekends. In the 200 backstroke event Moore was fabulous clocking in at 2:07.31 and earning fourth place while Paione dominated the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:25.57.
Both Pride swim teams will be home this weekend as they will take on Middlebury on Saturday.
Featured photo courtesy of Helen Lucas