The men’s swimming & diving team secured second place while the women’s team took third on Sunday night after a long weekend of tough competition at the Landmark Conference Championships Feb. 17-19 in Boyds, Md.
The women’s team headed into the weekend as last year’s defending champions but trailed the Catholic University of America and the University of Scranton throughout the meet. The Rangers closed out the weekend with 638 points, far behind Scranton’s 775 and Catholic’s winning tally of 807 points.
The men’s team racked up a total of 689 points over the course of the competition, finishing behind Catholic’s 765 points. Drew’s position as runner-up matches their second place finish at last year’s 2022 Landmark Conference Champs.
Despite not taking first, Drew’s teams put up a tremendous showing in the pool to close out their season, securing nearly 30 top three finishes and shattering a number of both school and meet records.
The women kicked off the competition on Friday night by breaking Drew’s team record in the 200-freestyle relay, swam by Grace Aboussleman (‘23), Amira Ahmad Hadri (‘24), Kaitlyn Zayle (‘26) and Katie Cashin (‘23). Later on in the evening, Cashin broke her own team record in the 200-individual medley, and the Rangers placed in the top three for five events.
Drew’s momentum carried over into Saturday’s finals session with three first-place finishes by the women. These included Hadri in the 100-backstroke and Cashin in the 400-individual medley, while the 200-medley relay, swam by Hadri, Tori Newton (‘24), Cashin and Aboussleman, tied the Rangers for first place with Catholic.
Finishing strong on Sunday night, the Rangers grabbed six more top three finishes for the women’s team. Another huge success of the night occurred when Sam Trodick (‘25) lowered her own team record in the 200-breaststroke, touching in a close second behind a Scranton swimmer to a wave of excitement from her teammates.
Drew’s men’s team also put up an energetic performance throughout each session of the meet. They started off with a bang on Friday night when they tied for first with Susquehanna University in the 200-freestyle relay, with both teams breaking the previous meet record. Drew’s relay team, consisting of Brendan Burkett (‘26), Finn Armitt (‘24), Hayden Koh (‘25) and Josh Roberts (‘23) also broke the Rangers’ team record in the event, setting the new time at 1:23.61.
The Rangers’ success continued during the finals session on Saturday evening, as Koh won two individual events, the 100-butterfly and 100-backstroke, and Harrison Neal (‘23) took third in the 400-individual medley. The men’s 200-medley relay, consisting of Koh, Neal, Armitt and Burkett, narrowly beat out Catholic to snag first place and set a new team record.
Drew rounded out its eye-catching performance Sunday evening by securing five more top three finishes and setting a new team record in the 200-breaststroke, which was broken by Neal. In one of the most exciting races for the Rangers, Koh and Armitt went 1-2 in the 200-butterfly, leaving Koh with his third individual win and racking up important points for Drew.
The Landmark Conference Champs proved to be a successful culmination to the Rangers’ season. Both teams’ triumphs in the pool this past weekend showed off the results of months of hard work and dedication throughout the 2022-2023 season. The swimming & diving teams will resume training in the fall, when they will look forward to the start of a new season.
Records Broken:
- Women’s 200-IM (Katie Cashin – 2:07.20)
- Women’s 200-breaststroke (Sam Trodick – 2:27.66)
- Women’s 200-freestyle relay (Grace Aboussleman, Amira Ahmad Hadri, Kaitlyn Zayle, Katie Cashin – 1:37.35)
- Men’s 200-freestyle (Harrison Neal – 1:42.75) (relay split)
- Men’s 200-breaststroke (Harrison Neal – 2:07.38)
- Men’s 200-freestyle relay (Brendan Burkett, Hayden Koh, Finn Armitt, Josh Roberts – 1:23.61)
- Men’s 200-medley relay (Hayden Koh, Harrison Neal, Finn Armitt, Brendan Burkett – 1:32.10)
- Men’s 400-medley relay (Hayden Koh, Harrison Neal, Finn Armitt, Josh Roberts – 3:23.71)
Charlotte Wells is a junior majoring in English and French.
