Results

The Malone University men's and women's swimming and diving teams opened their respective seasons at home on Friday night with narrow defeats to the University of Mt. Union.

The Purple Raider women topped the Pioneers 168-107 while on the men's side, the overall result was not decided until the final races of the night with Mt. Union prevailing by a slim 144-140 margin.

The Malone men actually held the overall edge in swimming events.  However, the hosts did not have any competitors in diving and the Purple Raiders took advantage, outscoring the Pioneers 22-0 in the one-meter and three-meter diving competitions.

"Tonight was a fantastic swimming and diving meet," commented Malone head coach Russ Hunt.  "We came out swinging and Mt. Union matched us blow for blow."

Men's Highlights
For the Malone men, senior Tim Collet recorded first-place finishes in the 1000-yard freestyle (10:18.32), the 100-yard backstroke (59.98), and the 200-yard breaststroke (2:12.39).  In addition, Collet teamed up with junior Zachary Misak, senior Florian Zellin and senior Chris Eckard to win the 200-yard medley relay in a time of 1:35.82.

Junior Cory Boogaart notched two event wins, taking first in the 100-yard (48.13) and 200-yard freestyle (1:47.50) competitions.  Boogaart also placed third in the 500-yard freestyle (5:02.33) and joined Misak, Eckard and senior Hector Gonzalez on the Pioneers' first-place 200-yard freestyle relay team (1:26.91).

On top of his contribution to the two first-place relay teams, Misak won the 100-yard (52.82) and 200-yard backstroke (2:00.52) competitions.

Zellin won the 500-yard freestyle (4:55.54) and 200-yard individual medley (1:59.90) while also finishing second in the 200-yard butterfly (1:57.59).

Echard claimed second-place in both the 100-yard (48.57) and 200-yard freestyle (1:48.55) while Gonzalez took second in the 50-yard freestyle (22.76) and 100-yard butterfly (54.81).

Others scoring points for the Malone men included senior Evan Dickes, who placed fifth in the 200-yard butterfly (2:14.18) and 500-yard freestyle (5:14.23),  junior Jeremy Williams, who finished fifth in both the 1000-yard freestyle (12:38.70) and 200-yard backstroke (2:36.38), junior Jacob Rehfus, who took fifth in the 100-yard butterfly (57.07), sophomore Austin Weingart, who placed fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:07.46), freshman Collin Schmid, who placed fifth in the 100-yard (1:12.88) and 200-yard breastroke (2:43.97), and freshman Carlton Lenartowicz, who placed fifth in the 100-yard backstroke (1:07.40).
 
Women's Highlights
The Pioneer women were paced by senior captain Marta Jankowska, who won the 100-yard butterfly in a time of 59.50 – a mark that ranks third on Malone's all-time performance list in the event (Jankowska posted the top two times in the event last season).  In addition, she placed first in the 200-yard butterfly (2:09.82) and the 200-yard individual medley (2:14.65) and was a member of the Pioneers' winning 200-yard medley relay team that also included junior Brittany McCue, junior Olivia Bently and sophomore Carolin Friedrich.

Bently, Jankowska, Friedrich and McCue also made up Malone's 200-yard freestyle relay team that earned the top time in the event with a performance of 1:45.71.

Individually, Friedrich captured the top spot in the 200-yard freestyle (2:01.18) and finished second in both the 100-yard (56.76) and 500-yard freestyle (5:22.85).

Sophomore Kaitlyn Hoch placed first in the one-meter diving competition with a score of 186.15.

Freshman Christina Neumann earned second-place finishes in the 1000-yard freestyle (11:29.89) and the 200-yard butterfly (2:25.60).

In addition to their relay contributions, Bently placed second in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:10.10) while McCue earned third-place finishes in both the 100-yard (1:06.35) and 200-yard backstroke (2:29.74).

Others scoring points for Malone included junior Charis Parker, who placed third in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:32.69) and fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:11.09), freshman Kaylor Schuttinger, who earned a third-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle (27.07),  sophomore Sarah Mally, who earned fifth-place finishes in the 200-yard (2:11.26) and 500-yard freestyle (6:03.68), sophomore Quincy Livchak, who took fourth in the 200-yard butterfly (2:35.35), junior Audrey Miller, who placed fifth in the 100-yard backstroke (1:15.94), junior Christina Yu, who placed fifth in the 50-yard freestyle (27.64), and freshman Karleigh Stichert, who took sixth in the 200-yard backstroke (2:44.55).

Overall, Hunt was very pleased with his team's effort.

"At the end of the night, we came out on the wrong side of the point total, but truthfully, with where we are in the season's process, we battled with heart and grit. It's a credit to this team's mindset."

Both Malone squads return to Branin Natatorium next Friday (Oct. 30) to host a 6:00 p.m. meet against Wheeling Jesuit (WV) University.