On the weekend of November 20, the UMBC men’s swimming and diving team placed first at the Patriot Invitational, while the entire team came away with an equally impressive third. The Retrievers’ impressive performance amounted in their first meet victory since 2012, and the results came from a united team performance.
“One great aspect of our team is our ability to get each person behind each other and try to push each other to our limits. We were the loudest team on the pool deck,” said head captain John Carroll.
The team unity certainly helped the team progress along the way, with the majority of the team earning season best times and showing consistent improvements through all of their dual meets.
The Retrievers’ victory also came on the heel of a challenging part of the swimming and diving season, with multiple dual meets already coming against the top 25 opponents in the nation. The Retrievers, however, only saw this as an opportunity.
“I think having this experience so early in the season helped prepare us for our mid-season meet,” said Carrol.
Multiple first place performances highlight this development, with the men’s team being led by first place performances by Alexander Gliese in the 200 back, George Sporlein in the 100 free and Kyle Paxton in the 200 breast.
The women’s team displayed their results with Emily Escobedo’s first place performance in the 200 breast, and Laura Massicotte’s second place performance in the 1,650 free.
The Retrievers will return to the UMBC Aquatic Complex on January 9 to host their next dual meet against the Howard Bison at 2:30 p.m.
