Feb. 3, 2010

Complete Results

PHILADELPHIA - The La Salle swimming and diving team wrapped up the regular season dual meet schedule on Wednesday night when the Explorers swam at the University of Pennsylvania. Penn came away with both the men's and women's win, but the Explorers posted strong times against a tough Quaker squad.

The men fell 173-122 while the women dropped a 188-110 decision.

The Explorer men captured five golds on Wednesday night, including a relay win. Austin Thomas edged out Penn's Kyle Loughran by five-hundredths of a second to win the 50 yard freestyle with a time of 21.63 seconds. Dan Fitzgerald posted a time of 53.36 in the 100 yard backstroke to win the event. Thomas and Fitzgerald also combined with Owen Black and Dustin Gibb to win the 200 yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:26.53.

Also snagging a first place finish was Blase Szyszko, who once again won the 100 yard breaststroke event in under a minute with a mark of 59.70. Szyszko placed second in the 50 yard breaststroke by clocking a 27.33.

Szyszko, Fitzgerald, Thomas and Black combined for a 1:36.04 to finish second in the 200 yard medley relay.

The Explorers added 16 points to their total in the 200 yard individual medley as Tom Lawrie, Brian Batson and Colson Ferrari went 1-2-3. Lawrie clocked a 1:58.72, Batson swam a 1:58.88 and Ferrari followed up with a 2:02.25.

On the women's side, Shannon Duval and Jess Carbin led the Explorers with two wins apiece. Duval captured gold in the 100 yard breaststroke (1:04.16) and she won the 200 yard individual medley with a time of 2:05.16, over six seconds ahead of the rest of the competition.

Carbin swam a winning 50 yard backstroke time of 27.50 seconds and followed up with a 100 yard backstroke win. She, along with Alex Stoddart and Kellene McCall, went 1-2-3 in the event. Carbin clocked a 58.74 in the event, followed by Stoddart in 1:00.86 and McCall in 1:00.98.

Duval, Stoddart, Aubrey Cefalo and Liz Jordan teamed up for a first place finish in the 200 yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:39.71.

Duval, Cefalo, Jordan and Carbin also combined for a time of 1:49.29 to place second in the 200 yard medley relay.

Laurie McLaughlin led the Explorer divers as she picked up a win in the one meter event. She accumulated 248.85 points to top Penn's Madeline Bauer by 3.4 points.

The Explorers now take the week off to prepare for the Atlantic 10 Championships, set for Feb. 17-20 in Buffalo, NY.