Fath Lands Gold at A-10 Championships

Thursday, February 20

Geneva, OH

ALL DAY

George Washington University

Atlantic 10 Championships

Moritz Fath, Youssef Ragab, Haoning Chen and Tyler Kawakami pose with their A-10 medals

2/20/2020 9:58:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving

Results Women's Recap

Colonials sit second in the team standings

GENEVA, Ohio - Moritz Fath and Josh Legge grabbed the top two spots on the 500-yard freestyle podium, leading GW men's swimming and diving on Thursday at the Atlantic 10 Championships.

The Colonials flexed their distance strength in the 500 free with five swimmers advancing to the finals. Fath won gold in the event for the third time in his decorated career in 4:20.62, while Legge was runner-up for silver in a personal-best time of 4:24.74.

With two of four days complete, GW sits in second place in the team standings (220.5 points) behind George Mason (262). St. Bonaventure (201.5) and La Salle (169.5) are next.

Chasing a fourth straight A-10 title, GW added individual points from 10 different swimmers and three divers on Thursday before the Buff and Blue finished the night with a silver-medal swim in the 200-yard freestyle relay.

Fath picked up his second medal of the night, joined by Tyler Kawakami, Haoning Chen and Youssef Ragab. The group finished in 1:20.69, just off the pace of gold medalist George Mason.

Four Colonials qualified for finals in the 200 IM, paced by a sixth-place showing from Ragab. The junior from Egypt went a personal-best time of 1:48.50 in prelims and then improved on his seed by one spot with his finals swim. George Aspougalis (1:49.54) was third in the B final for 11th followed by Chen (13th) and Dylan Arzoni (16th).

Behind Fath and Legge in the 500 free, DH Hwang also qualified for the A final and took seventh (4:30.94) with Brendan Conley and Ian Molloy finishing 12th and 16th, respectively.

Kawakami, a first-year who has been a part of all three GW medal-winning relays this week, led the Colonials in the 50-yard freestyle with an 11th-place finish in a personal-best time of 20.61 seconds.

On the 1-meter diving board, Peter Nachtwey led the way with a fourth-place finish, narrowly missing the medal stand with a finals score of 279.55. Spencer Bystrom won the B final (259.35) to take ninth with Nick Tomczyk also scoring in 13th.

UP NEXT: The A-10 Championships continue Friday and Saturday. Preliminary events begin at 10 a.m., followed by evening finals. The full schedule is available here.

WATCH THIS: Hear from head coach Brian Thomas and Fath after Thursday's action.

Moritz Fath led the way for our men Thursday with an individual gold and a relay silver. Hear from him and @GWCoachBThom after the second day of the A-10 Championships. #RaiseHigh pic.twitter.com/u2uje3NSW9
— GW Swimming & Diving (@GWSwimDive) February 21, 2020