George Washington University Athletics
Five Revolutionaries Finish in Top Eight Friday at Big Al Invitational
12/1/2023 9:20:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving
PRINCETON, N.J. - Day one of competition at the Big Al Invitational was capped off in excitement with the women's 400-yard medley relay winning a tightly-contested race over Princeton and Penn State. The Revolutionaries closed Friday's competition at the Princeton Big Al Invitational with the relay victory and five individuals finishing in the top eight. GW returns for the third of four days at DeNunzio Pool tomorrow for prelims at 10 a.m. and finals at 6 p.m., all of which is available to stream on ESPN+.
MEN'S HIGHLIGHTS
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After a 50-yard freestyle time just .02 seconds off his personal-best and GW program record in prelims (19.58), Djurdje Matic captured GW's lone top-three individual finish, capturing third place in the A-final (19.72).
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First-year diver Michael Wood qualified for the A-final in the 1-meter dive with an eighth-place finish in prelims (278.65) and remained in eighth in the finals (254.15).
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Matic, Karol Mlynarczyk, Ethan Tulenko and Ganesh Sivaramakrishnan collected GW's highest finish in the men's 200-yard freestyle relay, finishing in sixth (1:20.15).
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After making the B-final in the 3m dive, Ben Bradley finished in fourth (250.00) and Holden Wheeler finished in eighth (221.65).
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Connor Rodgers qualified for the B-final in the 200-yard IM and tapped in seventh (1:48.64). Rodgers qualified via a 1:48.04 in prelims, his new personal-best mark.
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Mlynarczyk, Preston Lin, Matic and Toni Dragoja swam the men's 400-yard medley relay and finished in fifth place (3:12.27) in the last swim of the night.
WOMEN'S HIGHLIGHTS
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Phoebe Wright, Ava DeAngelis, Moriah Freitas and Riley Kudlac stood tall in the final women's event of the night and won the 400-yard medley relay (3:38.80). The foursome outlasted Princeton and Penn State in the waning moments of the race to hold on for GW's first event win of the competition.
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Ava Topolewski and Zoe Schneider each made the A-final in the 500-yard freestyle, finishing in fifth (4:47.34) and seventh (4:48.68), respectively. Schneider, a first-year from York, Pa., clocked a personal best in the event. In the B-final of the 500-yard freestyle, Wright finished in fourth (4:49.76) and Yulia Groysman finished in eighth (5:00.47).
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Olivia Paquette captured seventh place (277.55) in the A-final of the 3-meter dive after qualifying fourth in prelims with the exact same score.
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The women's 200-yard freestyle A relay, made up of Chloe Hernandez, Barbara Schaal, Kudlac and Topolewski, finished in fourth place (1:31.89), within a half-second of the school record.
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After finishing ninth in the 50-yard freestyle prelims (23.30) and missing the A-final by one seed and just .07 seconds, Hernandez touched in seventh (23.50) in the B-final.
