University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
LIBERTY
Richmond Swim & Dive Downs Liberty
11/09/2013 | Women's Swimming & Diving
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. – The Richmond swimming and diving program defeated Liberty, 153-138, Saturday in dual meet action at the Robins Center Natatorium.
The Spiders picked up momentum early winning the first five events of the meet, including the 400 medley relay in which Richmond posted an overall time of 3:50.62, which barely edged Liberty's time of 3:52.61. Six Spiders in total were able to win races including senior Mali Kobelja, who won the 100 freestyle with a time of 52.66 and missed first-place in the 100 breaststroke by less than two tenths of a second.
“Liberty is a very good team,” said head swimming and diving coach Matt Barany. “We utilized the advantage of having this meet at home and got great support from our divers. The story here is how many people contributed for us.”
One of the contributors was junior Meredith Gouger, who doesn't normally swim the 1000 freestyle for the Spiders, but was able to win the event posting a time of 10:24.97. Following right behind Gouger was sophomore Emma Terwilliger posting a time of 10:25.19. Gouger and Terwilliger pushed each other throughout the event creating a 17 second lead over the third-place finisher.
Others helping the Spiders get out to an early lead were Sophomore Natalya Ares who won the 200 freestyle and freshman Maggie Pope who won the 100 backstroke. Sophomore Melissa Ross also played a key role for the Spiders winning the 200 butterfly.
The Richmond diving team was able to turn in a huge day. Freshman Irina Chiulli set a new school record on the three-meter diving event with a score of 310.05, which also helped qualify her for the NCAA Diving Zone.
"I was really proud of the way our divers stepped up today,” said diving coach Sean Letsinger. “This was the most consistent that I have seen them dive as a team. Irina had a really solid performance on both boards, but really shined on three meter today when she broke Katherine's school record. I am excited to see all of the divers continue to push each other both in practice and in the meets. It is awesome that both Katherine and Irina have qualified for zones so early in the season. But I was most impressed with Mikaela's performance today. She has had a pretty rough few weeks and continues to push forward and work hard. It really showed today."
Junior Katherine Cook also qualified for the NCAA diving zone today, scoring 273.75 on the one-meter event.
Richmond will jump back into the pool Thursday, Nov. 21 when it travels to Fairfax, Va. to compete in the Patriot Invitational.
Players Mentioned
