The Basics:
Score: Women: Roanoke 107, Lynchburg 98 | Men: Roanoke 153, Lynchburg 52
Meet: Liberty University tri-meet: Roanoke vs. Lynchburg dual
Location: Lynchburg, Va.
The Lead: The Roanoke College swim teams traveled to Lynchburg to open up competition for the 2020-21 season. Due to the COVID pandemic, it marked the first intercollegiate athletic competition of any kind this season. Roanoke would win 16 of the 22 events en route to besting their Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) rivals from the University of Lynchburg.
Women's highlights:
- In the season opening event, the 400 Medley Relay, the quartet of Maddie Andrews, Sarah Virginia Scott, Kimberly Large, and Elizabeth Roberts would touch (4:08.01) just 1.8 seconds ahead of the team from Lynchburg to earn first place points to get the meet started.
- Junior Izzy Mack would post a final time of 11:28.05 in the longest race of the afternoon, the 1000 Freestyle, to make it a two-for-two start for the Maroons. Mack would return later in the meet to claim her second win by taking the 500 Freestyle by just .23 of a second ahead of teammate Grace Fountain.
- Large added a pair of individual wins in addition to the relays. Kimberly out-touched Roberts in the 50 Freestyle (24.72) before posting a five and a half second win in the 100 Butterfly (59.06).
- Roberts, Fountain, and Andrews each secured a pair of runner-up points. Sarah Virginia Scott earned a second place finish in the 100 Breaststroke (1:10.55) while Bailey Gallagher added third place points in the 200 Individual Medley (2:21.00).
- The women's final event of the meet would see Paige Shaika join Large, Roberts, and Andrews to secure a win in the 400 Freestyle Relay, and claim a nine point win over the Hornets.
Men's highlights:
- The Roanoke men got off to a great start by taking the 400 Medley Relay and setting a dominant tone that would see the Marrons take 10 of the 11 events. Richie Evans, Connor Kinkema, Ben Tate, and Nick McGrath posted a time of 3:35.91 and winning the event by over three seconds.
- Josh Rauch would take both distance events, the 1000 and 500 Freestyle. In the 1000, Rauch started a 1-2-3 finish with a time of 10:17.99. Jacob Cole finished runner-up by four seconds over third-place finisher Jake Bowery. Later in the afternoon, Bowery would finish runner-up to Tate (4:58.70) in the 500.
- Xavier Williams just edged Evans in the 50 Freestyle with a time of 21.73. Evans would return the favor touching .40 ahead of Williams in the 100 free while Brian Grimmett would give Noke yet another 1-2-3 finish.
- Kinkema would post a .77 victory over Davis Wheeler in a 200 Individual Medley that would see a Maroon sweep of the top five spots. In the 100 Breaststroke, Kinkema would add another individual win.
- In the 200 Freestyle Tate posted a time of 1:47.29 for a two plus second win over teammate Cole Hensen. Tate secured first place points with almost a full second win in the 100 Butterfly (53.05).
- Evans, Tate, Williams, and Grimmett closed out the meet with an eight second win in the 400 Freestyle Relay.
Up next: Roanoke hill head back to the hill City on February 5th for a rematch with the Hornets.
