University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
Atlantic 10 Championships
Swimming & Diving Captures 4th-Straight A-10 Crown
02/23/2014 | Women's Swimming & Diving
Richmond Swimming and Diving earned Swimmer of the Year, Coach of the Year and captured its fourth-straight Atlantic 10 Conference Championship, and 12th in the past 13 years, with 645.5 points Saturday night at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio. Senior Mali Kobelja (Ft. Wayne, Ind.) won her third-straight Swimmer of the Year Award after winning a pair of first-place results and one second-place finish for 57 points for the team.
Kobelja was also swam four of the team's five relay titles, sweeping the five events for 200 team points for the meet. She is one of the most decorated Swimmers in school history, capturing Swimmer of the Year three times after earning Rookie of the Year in 2011.
“The key to winning these is winning the relays,” said A-10 Coach of the Year Matt Barany. “We were not seeded high this year and people might have been thinking we were off. This conference is getting stronger and this is a tough challenge. We started off a little nervous the first three sessions, but Friday we found it and did what I thought we were capable of from that point.”
The sophomore class also contributed to the team score. Kelley Yang (Elicott City, Md.) ended with a first, a second and a third place finish in individual events at the meet, and also swam in four of the five team relay titles. Classmate Natalya Ares (Potomac, Md.) had a pair of second-place finishes to go with a ninth-place result to score in all three of her individual events, as well as swim four times in team relays.
The diving team also contributed by getting all three divers to earn points for the first time in over a decade. Freshman Irina Chiulli (Westwood, Mass.) finished fourth in the 3m event on Saturday, following up a sixth-place finish in the 1m on Thursday. Junior Katherine Cook (Kenilworth, Ill.) and freshman Mikaela Gekas-Robinson both scored points in both the 1m and 3m events for the Spiders.
A mix of seniors and underclassmen were scattered throughout the results scoring points for the squad. Seniors Kobelja, Erin Brady (Tyngsboro, Mass.), Laura Jordan (Tampa, Fla.), Jessie Krebs (Towson, Md.) and Mariel Kush (Souderton, Pa.) were honored in a ceremony before the finals by the league. They are part of a senior class that swept their time in Atlantic 10 Championships.
The team held a post-meet ceremony in Ohio celebrating the seniors and the team's accomplishments.
Players Mentioned
