With the Thanksgiving break on the horizon, the men and women's swim teams wanted to go into Turkey Day at the top of their games. The Blue Jays did just that with numerous provisional times and an NCAA A cut qualifier at The Terp Cup, hosted by the University of Maryland.
After an 11-day break from the pool, the Hopkins men's swim team went into the Terp Cup fresh and ready to compete. As the only Division III team in a talented pool that included Maryland, North Carolina State, West Chester, William & Mary and Towson, the Blue Jays were determined to make their presence known.
The men's team kicked off the first-day-placing seventh in the 200 Free Relay with the team of senior Eddy Zandee, junior Carter Gisriel, and sophomores Joe Acquaviva and Ben Tillar posting a time of 1:25.02.
The highlight from day one came from Acquaviva's 100 Back split of the 400 Medley Relay (51.80), which qualifies him for an NCAA B time.
The Blue Jays built off Thursday's success and looked even stronger on day two. Hopkins opened up with a fourth place finish in the 200 IM relay consisting of Acquaviva, senior Tim Nam, Gisriel, and sophomore Anthony Lordi. Their time of 1:32.58 qualified as an NCAA B time—the first of five on the day.
The next came by way of Gisriel from a fifth place finish in the 100 fly (50.26). Acquaviva placed 10th overall in the 100 back with an NCAA B time of 51.27. Two NCAA B times were achieved in the 800 free relay, the final event of the night. The team of junior Nick Schmidt, Lordi, sophomore Will Kimball, and freshman Ryan Cunningham placed sixth and combined for a NCAA B time of 6:52.32.
Junior Dylan Coggin participated on Hopkin's eighth place team in the event, but his split of 1:41.08 on the opening leg (1:41.08) qualified as another NCAA B time.
The Blue Jays wrapped up the meet with five additional NCAA provisional times and an overall sixth place finish with 230 points. Led by freshman Dylan Davis, Hopkins had four swimmers place in the 200 back. Davis finished 10th overall and had an NCAA B time of 1:50.76.
In the 100 free, Lordi placed seventh while his preliminary time (45.90) was an NCAA B qualifier. Next, freshman Gregory Kogut had a great time in the 200 fly (1:53.85) which was also an NCAA B time.
The final event of the Terp Cup, the 400 free relay also provided two more NCAA B times: the fourth place finish of Coggin, Gisriel, Acquaviva, and Lordi (3:04.28) as well as Coggins split in the opening 100 meters (45.95).
The men's team wasn't the only Blue Jay squad coming in strong into the tournament. With a new school record in the 50 free and six NCAA B cuts on the first day alone, the women's team had an extraordinary outing.
Hopkins opened up with a fifth place finish in the 200 Free relay with sophomore Kylie Ternes, freshmen Ana Bogdanovski, Jillian Liwacz, and senior Liz Rogers, an NCAA B qualifier in 1:36.36. Freshman Sammi Fox wrote her name into the school's record book as well with a preliminary and NCAA B time of 2:08.00 in the 200 IM.
This came shortly before Rogers' record breaking swim of 23.80 in the 50 free, finishing in 11th place. To round out the night, 400 IM relay team of sophomore Taylor Kitayama, senior Annie Tsay, freshman Kylie Holden, and Rogers swam a time of 3:51.36. This was the fifth fastest in school history and good enough for an eighth place finish.
The highlight of the second day came from none other than Kitayama.
Kitayama placed 17th in the 100 back while breaking the school record—which Taylor previously held—with a time of 55.77. This put her first in the C final and made the NCAA A cut.
Other B times came by way of the 200 IM relay, the 100 fly, the 200 free and the 800 free relay. Kitayama also highlighted the third night by breaking her own record (also a school record) in the 200 back with a time of 1:58.99, nearly four seconds faster than her previous record. Kitayama's performance gained her this past week's honors as both Conference and National Swimmer of the Week. The women's team also finished the tournament in seventh place with 243.5 points.
"We are all really excited about where we are this early in the season," said senior captain Khristine Ghemigian. "We are also looking forward to having our best championship season this coming year."
Both teams return to the pool December 2nd and 3rd at the Gettysburg Invitational.
