By Robert Dickey
@Rober_Dickey11
The Springfield College men and women’s swimming and diving teams had a busy weekend of swimming scheduled for mid November. Both men’s and women’s teams had meets both Friday and Saturday as they put forward impressive efforts in the pool.
On the men’s side, Friday didn’t go as they planned as they dropped their first meet of the weekend to Williams on the road by a score of 101-180. Williams was the No. 18 team in the country going into the meet and overmatched the Pride men throughout.
Despite the loss there were multiple noteworthy efforts from the team. On the diving boards, sophomore Connor Pennington continued to impress as he delivered a nationally qualifying mark of 305.40 on the three meter board in a winning effort. Pennington also scored a 283.65 on the one meter board in both another winning effort and national qualifying mark.
The relay team of junior Sean Harnish, sophomore Anthony Soares, freshman Andy Endress and freshman Erik Jensen continued to impress with a time of 1:44.21 in the 200 medley relay. The group was just as good individually as they were grouped as Harnish came in third in the 100 back race with a time of 56.80 and Jensen finished in third in both the 100 and 200 freestyle events with times of 50.12 and 1:48.86, respectively.
On Saturday, the Pride men split a tri-meet with Wheaton and Keene State. Springfield lost to Wheaton 130-168, but took down Keene State by a dominating score of 198-101.
Familiar faces dominated Wheaton in the first part of the tri-meet on Saturday at home. Pennington did not lose in the diving competitions registering scores of 310.80 on the one meter and 350.00 on the three meter.
Harnish and Jensen continued their strong weekends as Harnish won both the 200 and 500 freestyles with times of 1:48.80 and 5:00.88 respectively and Jensen won the 100 and 200 fly along with the 200 IM with times of 53:42, 2:01.55, and 2:04.59.
The women had the same fate as the men on Friday as they were beaten badly by a great Williams team 102-182. Going into the meet, Williams was ranked fourth in the country for NCAA Division III swim teams.
Senior Sierra Skaza continued her season-long dominance in the diving competitions by winning the one meter and three meter boards with scores of 272.10 and 274.58 respectively.
Senior Olivia Paione led the Pride swimmers as she finished her day with a second place finish in the 200 breaststroke competition with a time of 2:27.53 and had Springfield’s best finish in the 200 IM clocking in at 2:13.73.
Saturday proved to be a much better day for Springfield as they also split a tri-meet with Wheaton and Keene State. The Pride dropped the meet to Wheaton 126-165 but smoked Keene State 219-75.
Freshman Hannah Savoie won the 1,000 freestyle with a time of 11:21.95 and Paione continued her impressive day with wins in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes with times of 1:10.02 and 2:27.30 respectively.
Both teams will be traveling to New York for the Ithaca invitational this weekend.
Featured photo courtesy of Helen Lucas