The RPI men’s and women’s swim teams have been busy since their return from a winter break training camp in the Bahamas. The men’s team hosted the Kumpf Men’s Invitational meet on the January 11, while the women hosted the RPI Invitational meet the following weekend, January 18. The combined team then had two meets this past week as they traveled to Union College and then hosted Skidmore Saturday at Robison Pool.
The team has had some notable accomplishments at the meets so far this month, the women’s team beat Union for the first time in more than seven years with a team score of 130 to 93. In addition to their team accomplishments, the women’s team is on track to send several of their swimmers to the national championship meet. Team captain Allison Geer took second in both the 50 free and the 100 free at the RPI invite with times of 24.35 and 53.32 both of which were B cuts for the NCAA meet, Geer was also named UCAA swimmer of the week based on her performance at the meet. Additionally at the invite meet Meghan Hartman had a B Cut in the 200 IM with a first place finish and a time of 2:11.79. The women’s team finished the RPI invite with a team score that placed them sixth out of eight teams.
The women’s diving team has also drawn attention, as Melissa Hershey came breathtakingly close to setting a school record in the low board at the Skidmore meet with a score of 126—just two points shy of the RPI all time record of 128. Meanwhile, fellow divers Lindsey Carpenter and Elisa Prange added to the team score as Prange came in second on the 1m board, and third on the 3m board; Carpenter came in fourth on the 3m board.
Men’s team captain Pat Fell was named swimmer of the week by the UCAA for his performance in the Kumpf Invitational as he led the men’s team to a second place finish out of eight teams, falling only to Ithaca College. Although the men’s team was defeated by Union College with a team score of 95.5 to Union’s 146.5, they returned to Robison Pool this past Saturday and solidly demolished Skidmore. The team will be hosting one final home meet as Hamilton comes to Robison Pool at 2 pm on February 8. There will be a ceremony for the departing seniors, most of whom will be going on to the national championships.
