Swimming and Diving continued their great start to the season with a tie for the Harold Anderson Invitational late last month. PHOTO CREDIT: Siobhan Richards
The University of Rhode Island Women’s Swimming and Diving team tied for first with the University of Vermont at the Harold Anderson Invitational late last month.
University of Vermont, Providence College, University of Maine, Holy Cross, Binghamton University and Roger Williams University competed at the three-day meet alongside URI.
The first day of the meet was highlighted by a stellar performance from junior diver Marta Baumann, who scored 283.35 points in her six attempts on the 1-meter dive. This not only gave her the first place victory by 2.75 points over Binghamton’s Amanda McGraw, but it also set a new program record, beating the previous record of 282.075 points set by Maria Smirnov in 2017.
Almost half of the Ram’s points on Day 1 came from the 200-yard freestyle and the 400-yard medley races. The 200-yard freestyle team Julia Nevins, Quinn Frost, Mia Bonvissuto and Oswald finished third, while the team of Camryn Kreuscher, Grace Kennedy, Michaela Degnan and Julia Renna weren’t far behind in fourth place, bringing in a total 62 points.
Much of the same happened for the 400-yard medley teams. Coming in third for the Rams was Degnan, Brooke Kelley, Jackie Triglia and Jordynn Brown, scoring 32 points. The medley team consisting of Renna, Nevins, Jenna Salem and Bonvissuto finished in fifth place, collecting 28 points.
On day two, Baumann broke another record in the 3-meter with a score of 255.85. This surpassed the previous meet record of 255.30 set by Katy Evans in 2019.
A strong performance by the Rams in the 400-yard individual medley also helped them expand their lead. Maddie Tetreault, Aimee Garcia and Emma Lee placed in the top four spots in this event. Tetreault won the event, clocking in at 4:30.10. Garcia finished third, and Lee finished fourth. This combined effort would collect a total of 51 points for the team.
Rounding off the day with a 58-point performance for the Rams would be the 200-yard medley relay team of Degnan, Kelley, Triglia and Frost coming in fourth, collecting 30 points. Followed by the team of Renna, Salem, Nevins and Kennedy finishing fifth and bringing in 28 points.
Heading into the final day of competition, the Rams held a 17-point lead over Vermont.
Unfortunately, Rhode Island found themselves trailing by 14 points with three events remaining. Freshman Kelsey McMenemy kept the Rams in the fight after winning the 200-yard backstroke and setting a meet record with a time of 2:01.28. Degnan also finished third in the event.
“The team did fantastic,” senior swimmer Kristin Johnson said. “Everyone stepped up and everyone did their part and competed really well.”
Head Coach Lili Deering also had praise for the team’s performance.
“The girls never backed down, they swam every single race with their full heart, energy and effort.”
The team will enjoy the holidays off before returning to the pool for a home meet on Jan. 14 against the University of Connecticut.
“UConn’s going to be a battle,” Deering said. “They’re a really good, competitive program, but those are the types of things that we need to have in our meet schedule to make this program better and to challenge the girls to race against some really competitive kids.”