Nov. 20, 2006
LEWISBURG, PA -- The Monarch swimming and diving team tallied 611 points on the men's side to take third place at the Bucknell Invitational this weekend. The women grabbed 471 points and finished fourth. Jennifer Sargent headlined the weekend for the Monarchs with two wins in the breakstroke events.
Sargent had a dominant weekend taking both of her victories by several seconds each. In the 100 yard breaststroke, Sargent touched the wall in 1:05.67, defeating Kelly Morris of Bucknell by nearly an entire second. In the 200 yard breaststroke, the sophomore from Chesterfield, Virginia dominated the field winning by more than five seconds with a 2:21.12 finish.
The Lady Monarch swimmer also placed fourth in the 200 yard IM swimming it in 2:11.99. Sargent also contributed in ODU's A division 4th place finish in the 200 yard freestyle relay and both the 200 and 400 yard medley relay in which ODU placed fifth.
The rest of the Lady Monarch swimmers raced competitively throughout the weekend. In the 1650 yard freestyle, Emily Smidlein, Lauren Timby, and Diana Hurst finished 3-4-5. Also Liza Moiseeva, Bebe Abraham and Timby finished second, third and seventh respectively in the 200 yard freestlye. Moiseeva just missed a win in the 50 yard freestyle by a quarter of a second doing it in 24.58 seconds.
The men's team had a well-rounded meet placing third in the competition. Patrik Balint and Tyler Haverty had the best weekend for the Monarchs with several top six finishes. Both were members of the 400 yard medley relay team that took second, the 400 yard freestyle relay team and the 200 yard medley relay team that finished third. Haverty added another fifth place finish on the 200 yard freestyle relay team.
Individually Balint added two second place finishes in the 200 yard IM and the 200 yard freestyle. He also grabbed points for ODU with a fifth place finish in the 100 yard freestyle and a sixth place finish in the 100 yard butterfly. Haverty raced exceptionally well in the freestyle events finishing second in two freestyle events, the 50 yard and the 100 yard race, and added a third place finish in the 200 yarder.
The Monarchs will look to improve on their 2006-07 season when they dive into the pool at George Washington University on December 2. The one day event begins at 11 am.