Five More Golds Conclude CAA Championships for Drexel

Wednesday, February 14

Christiansburg, Va.

All Day

Drexel University

CAA Swimming & Diving Championships

Five More Golds Conclude CAA Championships for Drexel

2/17/2018 9:52:00 PM | Women's Swimming & Diving

CHAMPIONSHIPS CENTRAL

CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. – The Drexel men's and women's swimming and diving teams wrapped up the CAA Championships on Saturday with five more victories, giving the Dragons 13 total gold medals in the four-day event. That included 11 swimming golds and two in diving. As a team, the Drexel men finished in second place behind William & Mary, while the women sat fifth as James Madison won the team title.

The Dragons earned a number of individual awards at the Championships. Anthony Musciano, who won both men's diving events, was named the Most Outstanding Men's Diver of the Meet. His coach, Emily Howard, was also tabbed as the Men's Diving Coach of the Year. Adam Braun, the head coach of the Dragons, was named the Men's Swimming Coach of the Year, alongside Matt Crispino of William & Mary.

As a team, the Dragons finished with 12 team records set in the four-day meet. Fifteen of their swims set records at the time, and 59 Dragons earned top-5 finishes. A total of 76 Dragons finished in the top-10 in their events.

Alexa Kutch capped an impressive performance at the CAA Championships with a CAA meet record time of 1:54.23 in the 200-back, winning the event to sweep the backstroke events at the Championships. Her NCAA B-qualifying time smashed her own existing meet record by nearly a full second, and is a new overall conference record as well, also eclipsing a mark she had set herself.

Jason Arthur finished off his own sweep of the backstroke events with a Drexel-record time of 1:44.37, an NCAA B-qualifying time that broke his own school record by more than half a second. The gold medal was Arthur's second in as many years in the event at the CAA Championships.

Stathis Malamas joined his teammates as multiple gold medalists when he posted a 44.19 to capture the 100-free. Malamas' time is another NCAA B-qualifying time.

The Dragons went 1-2 in the 200-breast, with Joe Brown establishing a new program record to win, swimming a 1:58.47. He edged teammate Ralph Cannarozzi III's time of 2:00.32, good for second place. Brown's swim was another B-qualifying time.

Tanja Kirmse gave Drexel its final gold medal of the week in the 200-fly. Her 1:59.84 out-touched William & Mary's Maria Oceguera by eight hundredths of a second and was just seven tenths in front of third-place finisher Megan Cowan of Towson in one of the most dramatic races of the Championships. Kirmse's time shaved nearly two seconds off the existing program record, set six years ago by Lauren Faykes.