The Ave Maria University swim teams took to the pool in dual meet competition on Saturday, battling the Night Hawks of Thomas University at the Area Tallahassee Aquatic Club. The Gyrenes had one of their most accomplished meets in program history, winning five races. The women's team narrowly missed out on the first win in program history in a 111-109 loss, while the men fell to the Night Hawks by a score of 171-81.
Kalia Clary was AMU's standout on the women's side, as the freshman touched the wall first in both the 100 yard breaststroke and the 200 yard individual medley. Clary's swim in the 100 yard breaststroke set two school records, as her time at 50 yards (34.92) and her final time (1:13.97) were the program's new top marks. Clary also set a new school record in the 200 yard individual medley at 2:29.80, and her second place finish in the 1000 yard freestyle (12:27.48) was also good enough for a school record.
The AMU women provided four of the team's five victories on the day, with the last individual win coming from Jenna Owens, who won the 100 yard freestyle at 1:02.52. Ave Maria's 200-yard freestyle relay team of Sarah Hicks, Tosin Akinmolayan, Owens, and Maryanna Matista earned a win in that event with a time of 1:53.20. Two more school records fell in the butterfly, courtesy of Maryanna Matista. Her 100-yard time of 1:09.41 was a new school best, as was her extracted 50-yard time of 32.25.
On the men's side, Christian Steele provided Ave Maria's victory in the 100 yard freestyle. Steele touched the wall at 50.56 seconds, almost three seconds faster than the runner-up, Jacob Bilancione from Thomas. Steele's time was just .35 seconds off his pace from the tri-meet against Keiser and Lynn, which currently holds up as the fastest Gyrene time of the season.
Two more school records fell in the men's races for the Gyrenes. Ryan Pritchard was the first to topple a program record, swimming the mammoth 1000 yard freestyle in 10:40.10, breaking the previous mark by nearly four seconds in his first collegiate swim of the race. Samuel Pilkington added a new school record in the 200 yard individual medley. Pilkington swam the event, which consists of 50 yard of all four swimming strokes, in 2:08.46, beating the previous school record by .77 seconds.
Ave Maria's next dual will be the program's first ever home meet. The Gyrenes are slated to welcome the St. Thomas University Bobcats to Fort Myers, where the teams will match up on the campus of Florida Gulf Coast University. The meet is slated for Saturday, November 12, and the first swimmers are scheduled to hit the water at 11:00 a.m.
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