University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
Rutgers
Swimming Downs Seton Hall and Rider, Edged By Rutgers
10/26/2007 | Women's Swimming & Diving
Oct. 26, 2007
PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Senior All-American Jessica Witt won three individual events, leading the Richmond women's swimming team to wins over Seton Hall and Rider Friday evening in Piscataway, N.J. The Spiders downed Seton Hall 197-96 and Rider 182-111, but were edged by the host Scarlet Knights 160-132.
Witt took the 500 free, 1,000 free and 400 IM, while sophomore Katie Sieben also had lightning-fast timse in winning three events. She took the 50 free in 23.85, the 100 fly in 55.96 and the 100 free in 52.11.
The Spiders, who are without divers on the roster, surrendered 32 points to Rutgers in the diving portion and fell to the Scarlet Knights by just 28 points.
"I'm very happy with the results tonight," said third-year head coach and two-time Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year Matt Barany. "We beat two tough teams in Seton Hall and Rider and won the swimming portion of the meet from Rutgers, who is a perennial Big East and Top-25 team."
Witt won the 1,000 free in a time of 10:21.92, the 500 free in 5:03.85 and took home the 400 IM in 4:29.71. The senior was back with the Spiders less than a week after a 10th-place finish at the 10K Open Water World Championship in Ft. Myers, Fla.
"Jessica did a great job for us tonight," said Barany. "We need to be able to count on her for three events and she delivered for us tonight."
Sieben's times in both the 50 free and 100 fly were just shy of gold-medal winning times from last year's A-10 Championship. Lauren Beaudreau in the 200 breast (2:20.07) and Beth Ann Platt in the 200 back (2:04.52) were Richmond's other individual event winners.
"Katie is swimming very fast," said Barany. "She would have been close to winning two A-10 individual events with the times she swam tonight in the 50 free and 100 fly."
Both Spider relays finished second to Rutgers. The 200 medley relay of Platt, Beaudreau, Sieben and freshman Kylie Francis was clocked in 1:48.52. The 200 free relay of sophomore Alex Helland, Francis, freshman Natalie Lewis and Witt posted a time of 1:40.90.
"We will have our hands full again tomorrow with two more very good Big East teams in Villanova and UConn," said Barany. "But I feel like we had a good week of training this week. I'm proud of how our newcomers swam today and I'm very happy with how the team has come together after being apart last week."
Saturday's meet versus Villanova and Connecticut begins at 1 p.m. in Philadelphia.
