Oct. 27, 2006

Complete Results

The Maryland women's swimming and diving team opened the 2006-07 season this Friday, October 27 in a 102-90 win at home over Johns Hopkins. "We are leaps and bounds away from where we were last year at this point in time," said head coach Dave Durden, "I think we can attribute this to our training. Our fitness level across the board is better and we are still trying to improve in some areas strength-wise. Technically, we have just become better racers and we can see this in our faster swimming this meet as opposed to a year ago at this time."

Maryland dominated in the 50-yard freestyle claiming the top-three places. Junior Emily Smoak (Salisbury, Md.) won the event (24.63) followed by senior Natalie Ferdinand (St. Thomas, Barbados) in second (25.16) and freshman Cindy Gangloff (Akron, Ohio) finishing third (26.31) .

The Terps had an impressive showing in the 200 free with sophomore Yelena Skalinskaya in first (1:53.70), freshman Jackie Davidson (Beverly, Mass.) in second (1:54.74) and junior Kirsten Jones (Lafayette Hill, Pa) following in third (1:54.78). Coach Durden was pleased with the outcome of this event, "Lena swimming a 1:53 and Kirsten and Jackie going 1:54 are real solid swims. I was happy to see that." Jones went on to swim a top-finishing 5:04.97 in the 500 free.

Skalinskaya had her second win of the day in the 100 free (51.07) and senior Kaleena Laputka (Shamong, N.J.) came in second (54.18).

Freshman Andrea Lehner (Orchard Park, N.Y.) won the 1000 free in 10:11.37, followed by Freshman Nina Rossi (Princeton, N.J.) finishing second in 10:39.08. Rossi went on to win the 200 IM (2:09.86) and junior Katarina Csomova (Komarno, Slovakia) followed with a second-place finish in the event (2:12.91).

Maryland had the top-three times in the 100 backstroke with Lehner swimming a 57.12, Davidson a 58.97 and Ferdinand a 1:01.03.

In the 100 breaststroke, Maryland had the top-two times: Smoak (1:07.47) and Csomova (1:07.78). Gangloff had a fourth-place time of 1:10.55.

The Terps also captured the top-three finishes in the 100 butterfly. "Our flyers did very well. Annie, Gigi, and Patty all did a nice job in what we have been wanting them to work on in the 100 fly," said Durden. Freshman Annie Broome (Knoxville, Tenn.) led the way (57.31), followed by senior Gigi deToll (Culpeper, Va.) in second (58.10), and freshman Patty DeScenza (Naperville, Ill.) in third (58.57).

The Terps swept the 200-yard medley relay beating out the two Johns Hopkins relay teams. The first-place finishing team consisted of Ferdinand, Smoak, deToll, and Laputka (1:48.53) followed by a second-place finish for the relay team of Davidson, Csomova, Broome, and Gangloff (1:49.87).

Moving forward from the first win of the season Coach Durden said, "We are not trying to get ahead of ourselves yet. We have to take it one practice at a time. At this point in the season, how we train dictates how we race. It is so important that we come ready to go in a practice-type scenario, almost as important as coming ready for a race."

The Terps will return to action on November 4 in Durham, N.C. against Duke and NC State at 2:00 pm.