Dukes Dominate for Pair of Wins on Senior Day

Saturday, January 13

Harrisonburg, Va.

10 a.m. - Diving/1 p.m. Swimming

James Madison University

207

George Mason

1/13/2024 6:08:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

Photo Gallery Photo Gallery 2

HARRISONBURG, Va. – James Madison swim & dive set a pool record to begin Saturday's event and used the momentum to dominate from start to finish as it won every event against George Mason and Fairfield at Savage Natatorium as part of Senior Day. The Dukes defeated the Patriots, 207-87, while taking down the Stags, 206-87.

A total of 10 Dukes won individual events during the meet, with Riley Bridgman, Jamie Cornwell, Madison Cottrell and Jess Pryne all winning a pair of events. Natalie Jones and Kate Vitolo each took a diving event, with both scoring NCAA Zone qualifying scores on both boards.

Diving

Five Dukes competed on both boards, occupying the top five spots for each.
On the 3-meter, Vitolo took first with a score of 310.30 and was followed by Jones' 280.80 and Lexi Lehman's 268.75.
Jones then earned herself a win on the 1-meter with a score of 279.20, flipping places with Vitolo who took second with a score of 272.65. Alexa Holloway completed the sweep with a score of 263.30.

Individual Swimming

Out of 12 individual swimming events, the Dukes placed at least two in the top three in 11 events.
Katelyn Fitzgerald began the successful run for the Dukes with a win in the 1000 Free behind a time of 10:26.70. Abby Maguire finished third with a time of 10:41.21.
The Dukes then earned a win in the 200 Free with Grace Bousum swimming a time of 1:54.71. Riley Nugent took third with a time of 1:56.08.
Cottrell earned her first win of the meet in the 100 Back, coming up less than a second short of the pool record with a time of 56.22. Sydni Diehl (57.24) and Lauren Aylmer (57.89) finished behind Cottrell to complete the sweep.
The 100 Breast was the lone race where two Dukes didn't finish in the top three, as Bridgman took home her first win of the day with a time of 1:05.06.
In the 200 Fly, Pryne swam a time of 2:06.84 to win the race and was followed by Rachel McCoy in second place (2:07.31).
A pair of Dukes were the top two finishers in the 50 Free in Cornwell (23.87) and Emily Drakopoulos (23.94).
Cornwell then earned her second victory of the day, swimming a time of 52.14 in the 100 Free. Bousum earned a third-place finish with a time of 52.97.
Bridgman earned her second win in the 200 Breast (2:24.33), being joined by Pryne who took third place with a time of 2:27.02.
In the 500 Free, Angela Ritchie (5:09.95) and Fitzgerald (5:10.37) went 1-2.
The Dukes earned their second straight 1-2 finish, as Aylmer and Drakopoulos swam times of 2:05.52 and 2:06.20, respectively.
The 100 Fly saw Cottrell come .08 seconds short of the pool record, swimming a time of 56.03 for the win. McCoy earned third behind a time of 58.11.
Pryne and Bridgman ended the evening with first and third place finishes in the 200 IM with times of 2:08.38 and 2:11.15, respectively.

Relays

The Dukes began the swimming portion of the meet with a pool record time in the 400 Medley Relay, as the team of Cameron Gring, Bridgman, Cottrell and Cornwell swam a time of 3:46.56 for the win.
JMU ended the day with a win in the 200 Free Relay with the team of Bousum, Cornwell, Alex Volk and Rachel McCoy swimming a time of 1:35.32.
The all senior team of Diehl, Cottrell, Gring and Emily Wisniewski finished third with a time of 1:37.17.

Quoting Head Coach Dane Pedersen
"Overall, really happy with the meet. It has been many weeks since the last time we raced, right before Thanksgiving. The girls have had Thanksgiving holiday, finals, finishing off the semester and then they had Christmas break and our training trip in Florida. Training has shifted a little bit and changed as we've progressed through the season and enter the home stretch. Looking for different things in the meet that we did in the first semester, a lot of those things were showing through. It's definitely not a finished product, but on the way to getting there so it was a great litmus test. Really thankful for George Mason and Fairfield for coming down and making our senior meet possible. It was great to get to honor all our seniors. It's a very big and accomplished class so it was great to highlight and honor them and I thought the team as a whole did a really good job with energy and being together as a single unit. We'll enjoy today, but we'll be back training next week to get ready for a big challenge with Navy as our next opponent."

Up Next
The Dukes will hit the road as they travel to Navy on Saturday, Jan. 20 to face the Midshipmen in a dual meet slated for an 11 a.m. start.