URI finishes second at Harold Anderson Invitational
First-year Lily Hsu broke the long-standing 3-meter diving record set by Ashley Good in 2000. PHOTO CREDIT: gorhody.com
The University of Rhode Island Swimming and Diving team hosted its annual Harold Anderson Invitational, hosting teams from around the Northeast.
The three-day event concluded with the Rams finishing second place behind the University of Vermont, marking the first time in 14 years that a visiting team won first place in the event.
Day one of the competition started off with Rhody’s 200 freestyle relay team of Abby Zadorozny, Lyndsey Warner, Quinn Frost and Camryn Kreuscher taking second, but at the same time breaking a meet record with a time of 1:36.45.
However, the biggest highlight of the first day of competition was the phenomenal performance of freshman diver Lily Hsu who, in her first Harold Anderson Invitational, broke Ashley Good’s long standing record of 285.45 with her own score of 300.55 in six attempts. That was the longest standing record at URI, which had been standing since Oct. 29, 2000.
“It felt good to break the record, but I definitely was pretty nervous because it was my first time competing in this invitational,” Hsu said.
Jordynn Brown finished third in the 50-yard freestyle event, clocking a time of 24.43, along with teammate Rylee Kelly finishing seventh in the 500-yard freestyle.
Heading into day two, Rhody was in second place with 224 points. Vermont led with 258.
The second day of competition was headlined by Marta Baumann replicating her spectacular performances from last year’s Harold Anderson in the 1-meter dive where she broke her own record scoring 302.55, easily taking first place with second place scoring a 285.00.
Divers Brianna Tocco and Hsu took eighth and ninth place in the event. The Rams claimed 40 points in the event compared to Vermont’s mere three points.
Brown and Julia Renna took third and fourth place in the 100-yard backstroke, while Wynter Sands took 11th respectively.
The 400-yard individual medley was a strong point for the Rams as Maddie Tetreault took second, Emma Lee was sixth and Aimee Garcia finished eighth. Tetreault’s time was the best of the bunch coming in at 4:32.36.
“I think everyone did well and definitely tried their best,” Hsu said. “I’m not sure what specifically needs to be improved on, but we could try and focus on the finer points, so nothing very drastic, just cleaning some things up.”
Going into the third and final day of the tournament, Vermont still led with 591 points, but thanks to the strong performance put together by the divers, URI was close behind with 553 points.
Tetrealt’s third place finish in the 1650-yard freestyle was the highest placing by the Rams, however, Kelly’s fifth place finish helped the team catch up to Vermont. Sydney Joyce placed 13th as the trio secured 35 points in the event.
Renna and Tetreault finished fifth and seventh in the 200-yard backstroke, scoring 31 points, while Emily Makin, Hannah Benavides and Garcia took fifth, eighth and 12th in the 200-yard breaststroke, bringing in another 30 team points.
Ella Hacker had a fourth place finish, securing another 15 points for URI in the 200-yard butterfly.
After three days of competition the Rams finished with 756 points, good enough to finish second rather comfortably ahead of third place Holy Cross at 636. However, it was not enough as Vermont took first place with a commanding 853 team points.
The team has one more meet before the break for the winter as they take on La Salle University in an Atlantic 10 matchup. The meet will take place at the Tootell Aquatic Center on Dec. 3, starting at 11 a.m.