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BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Towson University swimming and diving team had several representatives at the USA Swimming Speedo Champions Series Super Sectional Meet hosted by Star Swimming at the University of Buffalo. The meet, which concluded Sunday, featured nearly 900 of the fastest swimmers on the east coast. Twelve Tigers swam very well and got a great competitive experience, according to Towson head coach Pat Mead.
“It's good for the kids to go and swim against this level of athlete," Mead said. "It's really good for our program to be seen in this type of setting and that's invaluable for our future."
The meet, which began Thursday, kicked off well for the Tigers as senior Adrienne Phillips, sophomore Victoria Oslund and junior Cassie Sorna each competed in the women’s 200-meter individual medley preliminaries. Phillips swam a time of 2:26.39 to qualify for the finals, where she finished in 24th place.
Towson had five entries in the women’s 100-meter freestyle. Joining Oslund were Melanie Rowland, Amanda Skroupa, Kaitlin Burke and Kendall Towe. Rowland’s time of 59.43 in the preliminaries helped her reach the ‘A’ heat of the finals, where she finished eighth with a time of 59.71.
Burke was very strong in the 1,500-meter, finishing in second place with a time of 16:59.51. That time qualified her for the Winter National in December. She also qualified for the Winter National in the 400-meter freestyle with a time of 4:18.63, finishing in second place on Saturday. Sunday, Burke capped off her phenomenal meet with a second-place finish in the 800-meter freestyle, timing 8:54.99.
Friday, Oslund and Rowland starred again, as they both made the final heats of the 100-meter butterfly. Rowland finished third in the ‘A’ heat with a time of 1:02.28 and Oslund was fourth in the ‘B’ heat (12th overall) with a time of 1:03.58.
Phillips also finished 22nd in the finals of the 400-meter individual medley, clocking a time of 5:11.31.
On the men's side, seniors Zack Stone and Ryan Westhafer competed along with Billy Pappas and Marck Jaeger.
Stone was impressive, finishing fifth in the 1,500-meter freestyle in 16:21.60 and timed a 8:43.88 in the 800-meter freestyle.
"This is part of the evolution of our program," Mead said. "This is the first year our kids have been able to do this. Zack has had as strong as a summer of any of our men's swimmers since the early 2000s.It sets him up to have a great senior year."
