Max Felsenstein
The Rangers swimming and diving teams have opened their season against Stevens, Montclair State and King’s College. While they have a combined one win for both the men’s and women’s teams, they have had outstanding individual performances from many swimmers, offering great hope for the remainder of the season.
For the women, Mal Vishwanath (‘20) has won Landmark Athlete of the Week for two consecutive weeks for her NCAA-leading 1650 Free time of 17:32.23. On the men’s team, Michael Ma (‘20) won Athlete of the Week for his performance against Stevens and Angelo Angione (‘21) won Athlete of the Week, setting a program record in 1-meter diving in his collegiate debut against Montclair State.
The Rangers currently do not have a winning record, but opened the Landmark Preseason Poll with both teams ranked at number 4. The Rangers still have a week and a half until their next meet against Marywood University in Pennsylvania, where they will also open conference competition against Susquehanna University.
“It really is the best thing we can have right now, there is a continuous hunger to do better and no one is content with second place, or barely winning. Everyone refuses to accept anything less than 110%,” Angione said of the season thus far.
Angione joins Mitchell Fry (‘18), Maxxe Albert-Deitch (‘21), Lexi Holroyd (‘21), Ali Keith (‘18) and team captain Jenny Stein (‘18) as this year’s diving team, whereas last season the team was comprised solely of Fry and Stein.
The program broke a combined 25 all-time records last season, having strong individual and team performances from several freshmen, who have stepped into leadership roles as captains in their second seasons, such as Stephanie Cushman (‘20) and Jack Mahoney (‘20). Mack Fox (‘19) is a captain as well as aforementioned Stein.
“It is important to take the success of last season and run with it; last year was a huge step for Drew swimming and to continue that and allow it to motivate us will push us to continue that trend, and allow everyone to do well,” Stein said. “The Drew swimming and diving programs are going in a positive direction and we want to use this to make a statement to the rest of the Drew community as well as the Landmark conference.”
With their success last season, the swimming program continues to progress into a threat in not just the Landmark Conference, but also nationally.
Swimmer Megan Cashin (‘19) said, “We want to re-break all of the records that were broken last season and take down the ones that were not,” while Cashin has been sidelined so far this season, “I want to be a cheerleader at the meets and help my teammates stay focused, continuing to give their all even when they are mentally and physically tired.”
The aforementioned Marywood University Tri-Meet is on November 4 in Scranton, PA. The women’s team will be looking to build off their recent success and the men will be in search of their first team win of the season.
