By Robert Dickey
@Robert_Dickey11
SPRINGFIELD — Both the Springfield College mens and women’s swimming and diving teams were unable to come up with victories this weekend as the men’s and women’s teams fell to MIT on Saturday and the men struck out against Babson on Sunday.
The men did not have their best showing of the season on Saturday against MIT at their meet in Cambridge, MA. The final score ended with MIT on top 185-100 and was the lowest score the Pride have put up this year to this date.
Despite the loss, the Springfield men did have a few strong finishers. Junior Sean Harnish came in third in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:02.59. Harnish also completed the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:49.97 and was apart of the 400 medley relay along with sophomore Anthony Soares, freshman Erik Jensen and sophomore Sean Mitchell (3:48.28).
Sophomore diver Connor Pennington was the highlight of the meet for the Pride as he delivered times in two events that will qualify him for nationals. Pennington scored a mark of 319.98 on the three-meter and a 319.65 on the two meter which also was good for second place in the event.
Against Babson, the men lost a much closer meet by a final score of 164-130.
The combination of Harnish, Soares, Jensen and Mitchell finished second in the 200 medley event with a time of 1:40.40. Harnish also won the 100 fly with a time of 54:95 and Jensen came in first on the 200 fly and 500 freestyle with times of 1:58.92 and 4:58.33 respectively.
Freshman diver Luca Brashear posted two nationally qualifying scores on Sunday. His first mark was set at 309.83 in the three meter and his second score was 291.68 on the one meter which was also the winning mark for the meet.
The women’s meet concluded with a final score of 171-115 in favor of MIT. Despite the loss, Springfield produced a few strong finishers.
Sophomore Brianna Magee posted an impressive 50 freestyle time of 25.82 while sophomore Hillary Gallagher raced to a time of 1:05.67 and came in third in the 200 back event with a time of 2:22.70.
In the diving competitions, senior Sierra Skaza finished with a nationally qualifying score of 290.55 to win the three meter event and finished with a score of 221.47 on the one meter.
Both mens and womens teams will be back in action this week for Springfield. The Pride teams will be represented in Williamstown, Massachusetts on Friday for their meets against Williams College.
Featured photo courtesy of Springfield College Athletics