Lehigh University
Rider
Lehigh men, women fall to Rider in New Jersey
11/8/2008 5:45:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving
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LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. – The Lehigh swimming and diving teams kicked-off a busy weekend of action in the pool with a pair of close losses to Rider Saturday afternoon at Coppola Pool. Senior Melanie Rolish and junior Allison Rolish each won two events to lead the Lehigh women, who fell by a 175-147 score. Junior Kevin McGrath swept the breaststroke events to lead the Mountain Hawk men, who fell to the Broncs 169-107. The losses drop Lehigh’s men to 3-2 on the season, while the women are now 2-3.
In a meet that featured a lot of close races, Rider won 12 out of 17 events on the women’s side and 13 of 17 on the men’s side.
Allison Rolish helped the Mountain Hawks to a positive start, with a win in the 1000 free with a time of 10:46.71. Sophomore Lauren Kindrick finished nine-hundredths of a second behind Rolish to give Lehigh a 1-2 finish in the event. Rolish later added a victory in the 500 free, as she out-touched Rider’s Kori Kraus by one-hundredth of a second to win in 5:16.44.
Melanie Rolish continued her season of strong performances in the breaststroke events. She led a 1-2 finish with junior Stephanie Naylor in the 100 breast and then captured the 200 in a time of 2:12.69.
The Mountain Hawks also enjoyed a top-three sweep in the 100 butterfly with freshman Alena Pollitt winning the race in 1:01.12. Junior Julie Sicherman took second place, while freshman Priscilla Barletta finished third.
On the men’s side, freshman Chris Toth started Lehigh strong with a time of 9:58.85 in taking first place in the 1000 free. McGrath continued his strong showing in the breaststroke events winning the 100 in 1:00.04 and the 200 in 2:12.69. Senior Brian Curci took second to McGrath in the 100.
Lehigh also captured the final event of the meet, as Dan Johnson, Ryan Guttormsen, Ben Dearden and Andrew DiPietro won the 400 free relay with a time of 3:14.59
“The women showed great promise,” said Lehigh head coach Rob Herb. “Rider has several scholarship standouts and the women did well to take many 2-3-4's and 3-4-5's to keep the score much closer that it could have been. The men’s loss was a hard one this time. I am not sure what the difference was but if we would have swam our times from last week; we would have won the meet. Unfortunately the meet that counted was today and we were just not getting it done.
Herb concluded, “There are lots of good things going on in the swimming and diving program, but today was one of those days. We will use today as a learning experience to see what we need to do better.”
The Mountain Hawks will be back in the pool on Sunday when they host NJIT at Jacobs Pool. Action gets underway with diving at 10:30 a.m., with swimming to follow at approximately 1 p.m.
