Dukes Down ODU at VT Challenge

Saturday, October 18

Blacksburg, Va.

11 a.m.

James Madison University

267

Virginia Tech

Photo by: JMUSports.com

10/18/2014 4:50:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. - The James Madison swimming and diving teams racked up three third-place finishes, as well as a 236-117 team victory over Old Dominion, to highlight their day at the Virginia Tech Swimming and Diving Challenge on Saturday afternoon.

"With this being our first competition of the season, I was looking for our girls to race well and apply all the hard work they've been putting in so far this season," Interim Head Coach Dane Pedersen said. "Over all I was very happy with how we raced and I know Coach Benson was happy with how the divers competed and performed on the boards. They are such an integral part of our team."

Senior Sin Hye Won (Springfield, Va./Springfield) started her final collegiate season in fine form, clocking a 29.75 in the 50 breaststroke to take third place, less than half a second behind the winner. Freshman Katie Parker (Millersville, Md./Severna Park) also turned in a top-ten showing, taking ninth place in 30.77

Won also had a hand in another third-place finish on the afternoon, as the senior swam the second leg of the 200 medley relay. She joined junior Kacy Edsall (Roanoke, Va./William Byrd), junior Ashley Clark (Manassas, Va./Osbourn Park) and senior Susanne Ginger (Boalsburg, Pa./State College Area) as the Dukes touched the wall with a time of 1:45.79.

Redshirt sophomore Taryn McLaughlin (Hudson, Ohio/Hudson) turned in the performance of the day on the boards for JMU, taking home the team's final third-place finish with a score of 270.45 in the 1-meter event. McLaughlin was just three-tenths of a point behind the second place finisher. Junior Carly Alexander (Plantation, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas) and sophomore Olivia Lehman (Dayton, Ohio/Centerville) took home eighth and 10th with 222.25 and 214.60, respectively.

Junior Camilla Czulada (Sinking Spring, Pa./Wilson) had a standout day in the freestyle sprints, finishing fifth in the 50 freestyle with a time of 23.81 before taking seventh in the 100 freestyle in 52.44. Czulada also swam the first leg for both the 200 freestyle relay and 400 freestyle relay, which finished fifth and sixth, respectively.

Senior Aimee Hooper (Clifton Park, N.Y./Shenendehowa) picked up a couple top-10 finishes of her own, with a sixth-place finish in the 1000 freestyle in a time of 10:31.79 before clocking a 5:08.39 in the 500 freestyle to finish ninth.

"In addition to the performance, I was eager to see how we performed as a team," Pedersen said. "This was our first opportunity to function as a team and support each other. It was a long meet, but the girls had good energy and supported on another.We still have plenty of work left to do this season, but this was a good start. We'll learn a lot from this meet and it will help us continue to move forward."

Aside from the win over Old Dominion, the Dukes dropped decisions to host Virginia Tech (267-84), Penn State (274-79) and Liberty (194-155) while in Christiansburg.

The Dukes will be back in action the weekend of Nov. 1-2, when they head down to Wilmington, N.C. to take part in the CAA Pod Meet. JMU will be joined by conference foes William and Mary, UNCW and Delaware