WELLESLEY, Mass. – Saint Joseph's College finished the first day of the 2023 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Men's and Women's Swimming & Diving Championships at the Boston Sports Institute – home of the 2012 Olympic Trials - on the campus of Wellesley College on Friday evening. Through 18 events, the St. Joe's women are in fourth place with 174 points while the Monks' men sit in fifth place with 20 points.
Heading into day two of the three day championship, Norwich University is in position to take home the men's and women's titles with 294 points on the women's side and 176.5 on the men's deck.
For the women's teams, Simmons University sits in second with 212 points and University of Saint Joseph is third with 177 while Colby-Sawyer College (166), Albertus Magnus College (120), Regis College (93), and Elms College (13) round out the eight-team field.
For the men, University of Saint Joseph is second with 62 points while Regis (43.5) and Colby-Sawyer (32) are in third and fourth place, respectively, heading into Saturday's events.
A pair of team records fell on the first day, one for each squad. SJC freshman Lucas Fendl (Ellsworth, Maine) broke the Monks' 50-Fly record with a 24.78 time in the prelims, only to best his own mark hours later with a 24.71 mark, and third-place finish, in the finals.
Senior Anna Walker (Scarborough, Maine), sophomore Tiffany Twombly (Sanford, Maine), junior Brooke Podsiadlo (Granby, Mass.), and sophomore Kiley Matthews (South Portland, Maine) broke the program's 200-Medley Relay mark by nearly three seconds with a 1:57.22 time and placed second overall in the race.
THE RUNDOWN – WOMEN:
- Matthews found the podium with a second-place finish in the 200-Free (2:02.27)
- Twombly also stood on the stand with a runner-up time in the 100-Breast (1:11.81)
- Freshman Elise Soucy (Saco, Maine) also posted a podium finish after placing third in the 200-Back (2:24.58)
- Podsiadlo rounded out the Monks' top finishers with an 11:47.97 time and third-place effort in the 1000-Free
- Walker advanced to the finals in the 200-Free and placed fourth (2:17.05)
- First-year Hannah Murphy (Quakertown, Pa.) participated in a pair of finals, placing seventh in the 200-Free (2:33.47) and 10th in the 50-Fly (37.72)
- Junior Ashley Thompson (Granby, Conn.) finished 10th in the 100-Breast (1:29.19) finals
- Twombly, Walker, Podsiadlo, and Matthews finished fourth in the 400-Free Relay (3:56.95)
THE RUNDOWN – MEN:
- Fendl was third in the 50-Fly with a program-record 24.71 performance
- Junior Shawn Perry (Plaistow, N.H.) advanced to the finals in the 200-Back and 400-IM with a third place finish and 2:21.82 time in the former and a fifth-place effort and 4:57.13 performance in the latter
- Sophomore Zachery Creekmore (New Fairfield, Conn.) was fifth in the 100-Breast (1:19.17)
NEXT!
The 2023 GNAC Championship continues tomorrow, with the prelims starting at 10:00 AM and the finals kicking off at 6:30 PM.
