PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Rutgers women's swimming and diving team continued time drops in their home opening meet with Harvard on Friday night. The Scarlet Knights and Crimson both took eight event victories each, but it was the Ivy League challengers emerging with the 170-129 victory at the Rutgers Aquatics Center.
 

FROM THE POOL DECK

• Sofia Chichaikina and Alice Scarabelli both helped Rutgers to a pair of relay and pair of individual event titles. Both Scarlet Knights gave RU victories with the 200 medley and 400 free relays. Chichaikina continued to shine in free with wins in the 50 and 200. Scarabelli, meanwhile, picked up top times in the 100 back and 100 free.
• Two-time Big Ten Diver of the Week Abigail Knapton won both the 1M and 3M.

RELAYS

• The 200 medley relay team of Alice Scarabelli, Tina Celik, Beatriz Zoppeidossantos and Sofia Chichaikina kicked off the meet with a winning time of 1:43.49.
• The 400 free closed out the night with the top time and a new season-best. Virginia Menicucci joined Scarabelli, Zoppeidossantos and Chichaikina for a first place time of 3:25.55.

SPRINTS

• Sofia Chichaikina added two individual freestyle titles against the Crimson as well. The Russian native captured a season-best 23.54 in the 50 free and also claimed the 200 free title in 1:50.17.
• Alice Scarabelli took first in the 100 back with her best time of the year in 54.71.
• The two top RU finishers in the 100 free also registered season bests. Scarabelli added her second event victory hitting the wall in 50.51 while Virginia Menicucci took third in 51.53.
• Simone Lusby placed third in the 200 back 2:05.51, also a season-best.

DISTANCE

• Cat Salladin finished in third in the 100 free logging a time of 10:34.27.

DIVES

• Abigail Knapton and Savana Trueb placed first and second respectively on 1M and 3M.
• Both Knapton and Trueb posted season-bests on 1M with Knapton scoring 313.13 points and Trueb collecting 320.78 points.
• On 3M, Knapton was first scoring 339.90 points with Trueb the runner-up with a career-best 298.95 points.

QUOTES

"I feel really good about the meet. We swam fast. If you look at the times from the previous meets, we improved on that. It's the same story we've had this year and that we'll have the rest of this year. We don't have a lot of depth. We won eight events and lost eight events at Purdue and we won eight events and lost eight events tonight against Harvard. The score doesn't look that close because we don't have that many people. The format will flip to our favor at Big Ten's. We have an invitational format-type team. You don't get a ring for a dual meet, you get rings for a Big Ten championship and that's the way our team is built. If you look at the way we are swimming compared to this time two years ago pre-CoVID, everyone is swimming faster than they did in November. Everyone is faster." - head coach Jon Maccoll
 

UP NEXT

• The Rutgers women's swimming and diving team is back in the pool next week making the short trip down Route 1 to Princeton to meeting the Tigers in the second "Battle For The Cannon Trophy" on Saturday, Nov. 13.

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