Swimming & Diving #CAAChamps Start Wednesday
Tim McDonnell
2018 #CAAChamps Central Page
RICHMOND, Va. – The Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) will award its first trophies of 2018 as the Swimming and Diving Championship starts on Wednesday at the Christiansburg Aquatic Center in Christiansburg, Va.
For the second straight season, five men’s teams and seven women’s teams compete in Christiansburg, as the championship is scheduled to run from Feb. 14 to Saturday, Feb. 17. Every event of the four-day title meet, including daily preliminary sessions and each night’s finals, is available for free online via CAA.tv. The conference’s home for all-things digital can also be accessed by mobile devices, and OTT platforms Roku, AppleTV, Amazon Fire TV, and Android TV.
Click here for more information.
Men’s Preview
2017 turned into another banner season for William & Mary, which again successfully completed a sweep of both team trophies. The Tribe men collected over 950 total points for the second consecutive year and held the daily lead after each day of competition en route to winning the program’s third straight CAA Championship. In similar fashion to each of the last two trophy campaigns, W&M maintained its advantage early with six individual titles and claiming the top spot in four of the five team relays.
Sophomore Colin Wright and junior Carter Kale each return to the championship looking to defend a pair of freestyle titles after Wright swept the 50 and 100-yard free and Kale outlasted the competition in the 500 and 1650 free. Sophomore Chris Balbo is the other Tribe athlete looking to defend a CAA title after he won the 400 IM in 2017. In the relays, W&M expects to contend based off past success and experience, which has proved to be critical down the stretch in recent seasons. The Tribe has won the 200 medley relay in three of the last four years, the 200 free relay in back-to-back years, the 400 free relay in three straight seasons, and impressively, the 800 free relay seven years in a row.
All five competing W&M seniors – Brett Barden, Wyatt Grubb, Tommy Kealy, Kyle Neri, and Conrad Zamparello – have a chance to end their college careers with four CAA Championships in four years, which is even more impressive considering the Tribe’s men’s program had not won a CAA team trophy prior to 2015.
A second-place overall finish for Drexel a year ago looked identical to the standings in 2016, but the Dragons still progressed nonetheless, scoring 180 more points than the previous season along with five individual wins and a team relay title. Sophomore Jason Arthur turned heads with title wins in the 200 back and 200 IM as a freshman in 2017 and broke the all-time conference and championship meet record in the 200 IM with his performance of 1:45.92. Arthur enters the week with the fastest times in the conference this season for the 100 and 200 back, and the 200 IM. Freshman Kieran Richardson owned the second-best time in the 100 free against CAA foes this season and is expected to make a podium bid in the 50 free as well.
Sophomore Anthony Musciano became the first CAA athlete since 2013 to win both Diver and Rookie Diver of the Year in the same season after he captured gold on the 3-meter and silver on the 1-meter to finish with the most points (37) of any diver at the 2017 title meet. Senior Simon Carne also brings experience to the championship, having placed second on the 3-meter a year ago.
Rounding out the final three spots at the 2017 Championship were Towson, UNCW and Delaware. Tiger junior Jack Saunderson was the only male swimmer to advance to the NCAA Championships last season and came back with an honorable mention All-America nod in the 200 fly. The defending CAA Men’s Swimmer of the Year shined at the championship a year ago with all-time meet records in both the 100 (47.01) and 200 (1:43.44) fly events. Saunderson was named Most Outstanding Male Swimmer of the 2017 Championship. On the boards, Tiger freshman Will Canny enjoyed a solid regular season which saw him win CAA Diver of the Week honors three times in all.
UNCW freshman diver Seth O’Dea was the only Seahawk male to pick up a weekly CAA award this season and enters the week with the second-highest score on the 3-meter, and fifth-best score on the 1-meter among league competitors. The Seahawks have won the 1-meter title at the championship twice in the past three years. UNCW’s ridiculous streak of 13 straight men’s CAA Championships from 2002-2014 is easily the most in league history.
The Blue Hens of Delaware were led individually this season by sophomore Kevin Basch, who earned a pair of weekly conference honors and recently broke the program record in the 1,000 free. Basch and teammate Patrick Savidge both recorded Top-10 times versus CAA athletes in the 500 free this season, while Savidge fared well in the 200 and 400 IM with the fifth-fastest times for each event in the league.
Women’s Preview
A pair of team relay victories along with four individual titles helped William & Mary storm back from a 70-point deficit on the final day of the 2017 championship to capture the program’s second straight CAA women’s swimming and diving trophy. Tribe senior Abby Mack is the lone returning individual title winner after she won gold in the 200 fly last year. Mack registered the second-fastest time among CAA athletes in the 100 fly and fifth-fastest performance in the 200 fly. Juniors Katie Sell and Annie Miller bring plenty of experience in the freestyle sprints, while classmate Morgan Smith had Top-10 times in the league for both the 200 and 400 IM during the regular season.
The Dukes of JMU came up just shy of W&M for the team title in 2017, placing second overall for the fifth time in as many seasons. Sophomore Bonnie Zhang was named CAA Women’s Swimmer of the Week two times this season and heads back to the title meet after making the podium in the 100 and 200 free events, and was a part of JMU’s winning 800 free relay squad as well. Like Zhang, senior Katie Parker will compete in multiple events this week and owns the top time in the CAA for the 400 IM.
Madison’s Carlyn McNeely is coming off a 2017 freshman campaign which saw her win CAA Rookie Diver of the Year honors. The freshman collected two medals at her first conference title meet, winning silver on the 3-meter and bronze on the 1-meter. She also recorded the highest finish among CAA freshmen at the NCAA Zone Diving Championships.
Towson came in third at last year’s title meet for the second consecutive year, but still owns seven CAA trophies all-time. Senior Jacy Icard recorded an NCAA B cut qualifying time in the 100 back this season and also has the fifth-fastest time in the 200 back among league competitors this season. Emily Wilson and Kelsey Jehl both were recognized multiple times as CAA Divers of the Week, while Wilson had the second-best score on the 1-meter this season and Jehl had the highest mark of any diver on the 3-meter (302.10).
Drexel’s Alexa Kutch helped the Dragons to a fourth-place finish at the championship in 2017 and broke two meet records in sweeping the backstroke events. The 2017 CAA Rookie Swimmer of the Year grabbed 40 individual points in 2017, and recorded the best times in her go-to backstroke events during the regular season this season leading into the championship. That includes a new all-time CAA record in the 200 back in December at the AT&T Winter Nationals with a time of 1:54.56.
The Dragons will look to defend their 200 and 400 medley relay league titles from a year ago, highlighted by a championship meet record in the 200 (1:39.61).
Northeastern, UNCW and Delaware rounded out the final three spots at the championship in 2017. NU sophomore Megan Clark, who grabbed two weekly CAA honors in the regular season, has the top performances all season long for both the 50 and 100 free events, both of which were NCAA B cut worthy. Senior Sara Touchette-McGowan won the 100 fly at the championship last year and made history as Northeastern’s first individual title winner since 2006. Fittingly, she’s poised to repeat in 2018 after owning the fastest time for the event among league competitors this season.
On the boards, NU’s Alyssa Seales and Jacquelyn Gover each own championship experience. Seales picked up All-CAA honors on the 3-meter in 2017 and Gover finished fourth on the 1-meter at the 2016 championship.
The Seahawks have had plenty of success on the diving boards already in 2017-18 as Adyson Lowe won three Diver of the Week nods and enters the championship with the second-best 3-meter mark in the conference. Junior Meagan Johnson leads the CAA in the 200 breast with her own NCAA B cut qualifying time (2:15.36). Delaware’s Mina Feyrer had success in both fly events this season with the No. 3 time in the CAA for the 100 and 10
th-fastest mark in the 200 fly. The Blue Hens are searching for their first CAA title overall.
For
live results, schedules, and more information on the 2018 championship, visit our official swimming and diving
championships central page. Fans can also follow live with the
Meet Mobile app. On social media, we encourage you to join the conversation by using the official CAA Championships hashtag,
#CAAChamps. The primary CAA accounts – Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat – will deliver behind-the-scenes content throughout the week, just search “caasports”.