University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
Duquesne
Spiders Beat Duquesne To Win Second Weekend Dual
10/17/2015 | Women's Swimming & Diving
Richmond swimming and diving followed up with its Friday night win to capture its second dual of the weekend by taking out Duquesne in the final day of the Richmond Duals 149-144 Saturday morning at SwimRVA and the Richmond Natatorium.
The Spiders got contributions from all four classes in the win. The Spiders took seven wins of the 14 swimming events, sweeping the top two spots twice for big points toward the team victory.
Six different swimmers won individual events, including the four seniors. Kelley Yang took the 100 Fly, Molly McSweeney (Stoneham, Massachusetts), won the 500 Free, Emma Terwilliger (Niskayna, New York) won the 1,650 Free to start the day, and Melissa Ross (Warrington, Pennsylvania), scored first-place points in the 200 Fly.
“I think we felt we had a strong lineup,” said head coach Matt Barany. “Today was a great meet. We have respect for Duquesne and they challenged us. The playing field is much more level so we make mistakes, we can get touched out, which happened some today. We have to start working harder and turn up our volume when a team turns up their volume.”
The Spiders diving squad dove unopposed to score maximum points for Richmond. Junior Irina Chiulli (Westwood, Massachusetts) posted a 287.80 score in the 3m springboard, an NCAA Zones-qualifying score in her first event of the day. She later posted a personal-best 286.20 result in the 1m, just three points from the school record, set back in 2002. Sophomore Laura Rokop posted a personal-best on the 3m board, with a 258.65 score. Both Chiulli and Rokop have the highest scores in a 3m event in the Atlantic 10 Conference so far this season.
“It is great to see our hard work pay off,” said head diving coach Sean Letsinger. “This weekend was an excellent start to our season, but we still have a lot of things that we can improve on.”
In the two duals over the two days, Richmond had 11 different swimmers or divers win an individual event, with the Spiders going 1-2 in an event eight times. Six different swimmers were part of a winning relay over the weekend as well.
In addition to the four seniors winning an individual event, two juniors, two sophomores and three freshmen finished first for Richmond in an event, adding an additional freshman involved in a relay victory.
“It was great to see the seniors win events,” added Barany. “Talking about role models, our freshmen are able to see our seniors produce at the level they were producing.”
The Spiders will take on Queens and Virginia Tech out in Blacksburg in two weeks on Friday, October 30, starting at 5 p.m.
Players Mentioned
