The Virginia men's and women's swimming and diving teams made a strong statement yesterday, defeating Penn State handily at the Aquatic & Fitness Center.
The 11th-ranked Virginia men never trailed in the meet and beat the No. 25 Nittany Lions, 131-105. The men won the first four events and maintained a lead of over 25 points for the rest of the meet. The Cavaliers won nine of 13 events overall.
"That's the way you basically have to do dual meets," sophomore Luke Anderson said. "It's all about building momentum up from the very first event. Once you do that, it's all downhill."
Sophomore Ian Prichard led the Cavaliers, winning both the 500- and 1,000-meter freestyles. Anderson added a win in the 100 free and sophomore All-American Luke Wagner won the 200 backstroke. In the three-meter diving competition, sophomore Pete Amstutz set a pool record with a score of 327.23.
"There were a lot of close races with a lot of really fine athletes from both teams," Virginia coach Mark Bernardino said. "I don't feel like it was a meet that we dominated by any stretch of the imagination. We swam very well [and] they swam very well. Both teams came in here with a lot of intensity and a lot of emotion and we just swam a little bit better than they swam today."
The 15th-ranked Virginia women lost the first event to No. 14 Penn State, but only lost two more the rest of the day, and won the meet, 130-111.
"The important thing was to keep our head high [after the first event] and keep going," junior All-American Mirjana Bosevska said. "We knew that that was just the beginning of the meet and we had a long meet to go and we made it up quickly."
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Bosevska won two events for the third straight meet, taking the 200 individual medley and the 500 free. Sophomore Carlie Dykehouse also notched two wins in the 200 free and the 200 butterfly. Virginia swept the 200 fly, finishing first, second and third. Sophomores Amy Baly and Megan Roesch added wins in 1,000 free and 50 free to help lead the Cavaliers to the victory.
"It's nice to know that that Mirjana Bosevskas, the Amy Balys, the Carlie Dykehouses and the Megan Roeschs are able to step up and race with just about anyone," Bernardino said.
Bernardino was especially impressed with the nature of the women's win considering they were without NCAA champion junior Cara Lane. Lane has missed the entire season and will continue to be out indefinitely with a rib injury.
"A lot of women realized that they don't need to rely on Cara Lane all the time, that they're able to step up and do things on their own and they're gonna be held accountable for how well they do with or without Cara Lane," Bernardino said. "That was a good step for us for the women."
The Cavaliers will hope to build upon yesterday's win at the Cavalier Invitational, which will be held Nov. 29 through Dec. 1 at the Aquatic & Fitness Center.
"This [win] will give the team a lot of confidence going into the Cavalier Invitational," Bernardino said. "It's always good to swim fast going into an invitational meet"
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