Swimmers Wrap Up Fall Season

The Providence College Swimming and Diving Team finished its final meet for the fall semester this past weekend as the team competed in the 20th Annual Harold Anderson Invitational on Friday, Dec. 4 and Saturday, Dec. 5 in Kingston, R.I. The men's team finished second out of five squads with 694.5 points and the women's team finished fifth out of five teams with a cumulative score of 496. Despite the lack of Providence names in first place at the meet there were a lot of successful performances that came from the weekend. "Overall, we've had a great meet," said Head Coach John O'Neill. "One swimmer fed off the next, so as we went from swim to swim, even session to session, it was exciting for both the swimmers and the staff to see all the work we've done all fall come together in one weekend." Eleven swimmers posted "A" qualification standards for the Big East Championships that will be held in February in Pittsburgh. The swimmers who qualified included captain Carrie Lamb '10, Erin Nanna '13, Sam Schlich '13, Kelly Lamoreaux '13, and Caroline Caliri '12. Lamb qualified in the 100- and 200-meter backstrokes, while Nanna qualified in the 50- and 100-meter freestyle. Joining Nanna was Schlich who also qualified. Meanwhile, Lamoreaux and Caliri qualfied in the 100-meter breaststroke and 100-meter freestyle respectively. "The whole team did awesome, and everyone swam amazing in the meet," said Jordan Rivera '12. Even with some absences due to illness the team conquered what they set out to do, earning a total of seven qualifying times. On the men's side, Tim Reilly '10 qualified in the 100- and 200-meter backstroke, as well as the 200-meter butterfly. Mathew Card '10, who has been swimming consistently well this season qualified for the 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle, and-100 meter butterfly. In addition to qualifying for three events, Card also posted possibly the most impressive victory of the day as he took the 100-meter freestyle event with a time of 47.69, while beating out the 31 other competitors in the field. In addition to Reilly and Card, Mike Loftis '10 also qualified for three events in the 100- and 200-meter freestyle and the 100-meter butterfly. Other swimmers who qualified for the Championships in February included Matt Green '12, Colin Casciano '12, and Chris Morales '13. Morales posted an impressive victory in the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:15.67, defeating the rest of the field by seven seconds. Casciano also did well to capture the 100 meter butterfly event with a time of 52.60. Coach O'Neill's biggest goal for this meet was posting Big East times, and with 11 now qualified, that has been achieved. In addition to the 11 swimmers who posted sufficient times for the "A" standards, nine Friars achieved multiple "B" qualification standards in their specialty events. Tallied up, team members made a total of 48 "A"and "B" standards as the Friars focused on qualifying in as many events as possible for the Big East Championships. The spotlight was not only on the swimmers, but also the divers who posted some impressive scores. Allie Black '13 finished first in the 1-meter diving event with a score of 224.77. Amie Fracker '13 finished right behind her in second with a score of 219.96. On the men's side, Ben Kardian '13 took the 1-meter diving event for the Friars with a score of 228.30. The team does not get back in the water for a meet until after winter break when they will compete against the likes of Villanova, Maine, and Syracuse. Also, the team will be competing against long time rival Holy Cross in January of next year. In the meantime the team will travel to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands for their annual winter break training trip on Tuesday, Jan. 5.