Mountain Hawks open season with sweep at Holy Cross

Sunday, October 9

Worcester, Mass.

1:00:00 PM

Lehigh University

155

Holy Cross

Mountain Hawks open season with sweep at Holy Cross

10/10/2011 9:04:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving

WORCESTER, Mass. – Lehigh's swimming and diving teams opened the 2011-12 season by sweeping a dual meet from Holy Cross Sunday at the Hart Center Pool. The Mountain Hawk men prevailed 155-80 while the women downed the Crusaders by a 130-104 score.

“It was a good day,” said Lehigh head coach Rob Herb. “Our freshmen really stepped up and showed how bright this season could be. The upperclassmen showed that they had the ability to exhibit some force in the Patriot League.”

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Lehigh-Holy Cross results

The Mountain Hawks won the first nine events, including sweeps of the top three spots in seven of those events, to clinch the meet early on. Seven different Mountain Hawks won one swimming event, and two of those seven would have won two had their times counted towards the team score.

Freshman Dan Bennett impressed in his varsity debut, leading a Lehigh three freshman sweep in the 1000 free with a time of 9:55.38. Bennett also posted the top time in the 500 free but swam unscored with the meet already clinched.

Junior Alex Aboud took top honors in the 200 IM, touching the wall in 2:01.30, and also posted the top time in the 100 breast (1:01.36).

In the sprint events, sophomore Demetri Karedis led a sweep in the 50 yard freestyle, with a time of 21.83 seconds. Junior Frank Cuzzola led a sweep in the 100 free, posting a 52.28 time and then took second to sophomore Matt Chrzanowski in the 200 free. Chrzanowski led a Lehigh sweep in a time of 1:49.31.

Senior Kevin Shoemaker led a sweep in the 100 fly for Lehigh, coming in at 48.96 seconds, while senior Chris Toth won the 100 back in 55.18.

The Lehigh men also enjoyed a strong day on the diving boards as senior Connor Styles won both the one and three meter events. Styles scored 233.85 in the three meter, with sophomore Mike Harshman finishing second, and scored 244.87 in the one meter with Harshman finishing third.

Lehigh also claimed the opening 200 yard medley relay with Aboud and Shoemaker teaming with senior Angelo DiGiacinto and sophomore Chris Hoke to win in 1:37.88.

The Mountain Hawks will return to the pool on Friday, October 21 when they travel to West Chester to face the Golden Rams at 6 p.m.