Women's Swimming & Diving Edged By Villanova By A Point

Friday, January 17

Piscataway, NJ

5 PM

Rutgers University

149.5

150.5

Villanova

Photo by: (Ben Solomon/Rutgers Athletics)

Women's Swimming & Diving Edged By Villanova By A Point

Jan 17 | Women's Swimming & Diving

Results

Meet Comes Down To Final Race With Big East Champion Villanova

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Back to competition after its annual winter training trips, the Rutgers women's swimming and diving team was narrowly edged by Villanova, 150.5-149.5, on Friday night at the Rutgers aquatics center.

FROM THE POOL DECK

The meet came down to the last event – the 400 free relay.
The Wildcats took first by a margin of .88 seconds in the race to push ahead for the meet victory.
Rutgers ended the evening with six individual event wins, including going 1-2-3 in the 100 and 200 back, as well as the 100 breast.

RELAYS

The night kicked off with sophomore Terka Grusova, freshman Aleksandra Ignatova, sophomore Kasja Dymek and freshman Elinah Phillip in the 200 medley relay capturing a top time of 1:42.51.
The evening concluded with the 400 free relay team of freshmen Sofia Chichaikina, Giulia Ghidini, Elinah Phillip and sophomore Eleonora Trentin posting a time of 3:27.58 and edged out of first place by .88 seconds.

SPRINTS

In the 100 breast, Aleksandra Ignatova led the trio of top Scarlet Knight finishers in 1:04.95, followed by sophomore Nora Woods in second in 1:06.37 and junior Delaney Carey in 1:06.96.
The 100 back saw Terka Grusova hitting the wall first with a time of 55.16 trailed by senior Alexandra Fabugais-Inaba in 57.17 and sophomore Simone Lusby in 57.88.
Grusova was also the top finisher in the 200 back registering 2:01.81 with Lusby in second place in 2:03.96 and Fabugais-Inaba in third with a season-best 2:05.32.
Grusova also took a second place finish in the 200 IM posting a time of 2:07.02.
Rutgers also got a first place finish from Phillip in the 50 free in 23:63 with fellow rookie Ghidini taking third in 24:05.
Kasja Dymek also gave the Scarlet Knights an event victory taking first in the 100 fly racing to a time of 55.73.
The 200 free had Sofia Chichaikina finish in 1:50.93 and fellow classmate Ghidini collect a time of 1:52.92 to take second and third respectively.
Chichaikina also claimed second in the 100 free clocking in at 52.22 in a close margin with Phillip, who touched the wall in 52.71.
Rutgers went 2-3 in the 200 breast with Woods recording a final of 2:24.37 for the runner-up spot and Carey following in a time of 2:27.38.

DISTANCE

Senior Francesca Bertotto claimed second in both the 500 free (4:57.82) and 1000 free (10:15.61).

DIVES

Junior Lauren Boone dove to third place in both the 1-meter (236.69) and 3-meter (236.85)
Sophomore Jenna Douglass claimed second on the 1-meter (241.12) with classmate Marina Wilkins taking second on the 3-meter (244.65).

MEET QUOTES

"It was tough. Villanova is a great team who are Big East champions. We were literally a hundredth of a second away from tying the meet and two-hundredth of a second or one dive going another way from winning it. We've got to be better with the little things – we've got to be better on our turns, our starts. This is all getting ready for Big Ten's. I told the ladies, we lost by a point and we shouldn't be bitter about it, we just need to be better, improve and move on." – Head swimming coach Jon Maccoll

"I thought a lot of it was good. They were looking stronger with a lot of their dives. Unfortunately, we made some errors that right now we shouldn't be making. We're going to have to work hard on that the next few weeks as we get ready for Big Ten's." – Head diving coach Frederick Woodruff

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS

UP NEXT

The Rutgers women's swimming & diving team will host Nebraska on Friday, Jan. 31 and Saturday, Feb. 1 at the Rutgers Aquatics Center. The Scarlet Knight seniors will be honored pool side prior to the 10 a.m. start on Feb. 1.

Follow Rutgers women's swimming & diving on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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