Swimming and Diving Concludes Successful Outing at Thomas Murphy Invitational

Friday, November 2

Baltimore, Md.

All Day

Drexel University

Thomas Murphy Invitational

Swimming and Diving Concludes Successful Outing at Thomas Murphy Invitational

11/3/2018 6:22:00 PM | Men's Swimming & Diving, Women's Swimming & Diving

FINAL FULL RESULTS

BALTIMORE, Md. – The Drexel swimming and diving team had a successful outing at the 2018 Thomas Murphy Invitational hosted by Loyola (Md.). The men's squad earned a first place finish with a total of 927 points, while the women's team placed second with a score of 799.5.

"This was our third weekend in a row racing, first time racing on back-to-back days and overall I am pleased with our results. There were some great swims today for this point in our season. April's 400 IM, Jason's 200 Back, Stathis' 100 Free were all impressive," Head Coach Adam Braun said. "Proud of the fight both teams showed coming from behind in the standings. Girls came back to finish second overall and guys to win the invite for the second year in a row. Now we shift our focus to our mid-season invite where we always swim fast. I'm excited to see what we can do when we back off of training for a day or two and throw on some old tech suits."

During session two of the final day, the Dragons earned three first place finishes, all coming from the women's team. April Forsthoffer and Gabrielle Rudy each edged their opponents by less than a second to win their events. Forsthoffer finished with a time of 4:26.61 in the 400-yard IM and Rudy earned first with 1:04.21 in the 100-yard breaststroke while Alexa Kutch won the 100-yard backstroke in 55.96.

The men's team earned four second place finishes in session two and the women's team placed two in the second spot on two events. Paris Raptis earned the first second place victory of the day for the men's team with a time of 50.10 in the 100-yard butterfly. Ralph Cannarozzi III followed this momentum as he notched second in the 100-yard breaststroke (57.83), beating West Chester's Jarod Anderson by less than one second. Jason Arthur took second in the 100-yard backstroke (50.72) while Patrick Cobb closed out the final event of session two with 16:12.03 in the 1650-yard freestyle. The women's squad of Rudy, Alicia Diaz, Hollie Hopf, and Kutch finished the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:37.43 while Diaz clocked in at 57.72 for second in the 100-yard backstroke.

Katie Caputo gained another second place finish for the second consecutive day as she finished the 3-meter dive with a final score of 221.10, which was nearly 15 points higher than third place finisher Shannon McCabe (West Chester).

In session three, the Dragons picked up three first-place finishes, six second-place finishes and placed three in third.

Arthur finished the third session with two victories in both the 200-yard medley and the 200-yard backstroke (1:47.81) .The men's relay team, comprised of Arthur, Cannarrozzi, Raptis and Scully won the event with a time of 1:31.89. Malamas also notched a win in the 100-yard freestyle, clocking in at 45.34.

The women's team placed second on three occasions. Kutch, Rudy, Hopf and Natalie Gundling finished the 200-yard medley relay in 1:44.98, Forsthoffer beat out her opponents with a time of 2:04.04 and the squad of Diaz, Rudy, Gundling and Kutch closed out the invitational with a time of 3:29.16 in the 400-yard relay.

Zachary Valenzuela, Raptis and the 400-yard freestyle relay team also placed second in their events for the men's team. Valenzuela hit the wall at 2:06.12 in the 200-yard breastroke and Raptis finished in 1:51.13 in the 200-yard butterfly while the squad of Arthur, Spear, Cobb and Malamas clocked in at 3:04.70 in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

Kutch notched her third top-three finish of session three with a third place victory in the 200-yard backstroke (2:02.82) while Myers placed third in the 200-yard butterfly (2:06.69). Joseph Brown earned third for the men's team with a time of 2:09.68 in the 200-yard breastroke.

Following this weekend, the Dragons will take a week off of competition before returning to action at George Mason's Patriot Invitational in Fairfax, Va. from Thursday, Nov. 15 through Saturday, Nov. 17.