Staten Island, NY — This weekend, Knights Swimming hit the road for the two-day College of Staten Island Invitational meet. This was a chance for the Knights to challenge themselves swimming against some really strong teams, and they took it—of the 30 swims this weekend, the Knights left with a total of 27 season best times, and 10 lifetime bests. Quite a few swimmers were even ahead of their end-of-season times from last year.
"This was our strongest meet of the season. We planned to have our first training peak here and our swimmers responded," said Head Coach Chris Mance. "I couldn't be more proud of our team and confident in our plans moving forward."
Women's Recap
Scoring finishes from the women's team came from Meghan Wurster, Grace MacHugh, Kitty Masayda and Cayla Nicholas.
Wurster had the Knights' only individual win of the meet in the 1000-yard freestyle. She dominated the field, with a first-place time of 11:30.02—half a minute ahead of the next finisher. Wurster also placed third in the 500-yard freestyle with a 5:37.45.
Masayda had the next-highest finish, swimming to second place in the 200-yard breastroke at 2:37.08. She was also strong in the 100-yard breastroke, placing third with a time of 1:13.30, followed by MacHugh in fifth at 1:16.56 and Nicholas in sixth, who swam a 1:21.58.
Emily Gursky, MacHugh, Masayda and Nicholas also scored with a third-place win in the 400-yard medley relay, finishing at a 4:27.52.
Men's Recap
Competition was definitely fierce for the Knights Men this weekend. Still, there were plenty of close races across the pool and each swimmer left with improved times on at least one race.
Jackson Lerner was the sole scorer for the men this weekend, placing sixth in the 100-yard butterfly at a time of 57.80.
Other strong swims came from Tyler Williams and Michael D'Ambrosio who each made improvements to at least one of their races. Williams also won an exciting heat in the 500-yard freestyle, putting him at a seventh place finish with a 5:48.80—he was the sole heat-winner on the men's side this weekend.
Performances this weekend indicate a strong second half of the Knights' season, which will begin after Thanksgiving when they compete against SUNY Purchase on Dec. 1.
