RESULTS
MIDDLEBURY, Vt. - Selected members of the Norwich University men's and women's swimming & diving teams participated in the two-day Middlebury Invite over the weekend, posting strong efforts to close out the regular season ahead of next week's Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) championships.
Against premier competition from Williams College, the University of Vermont, Middlebury College, and Castleton University, the Cadets got rolling early in the men's side of the 200 yard freestyle relay, taking sixth place behind a team of
Martin Adlianitski (Cheshire, Conn.),
Adrian Riendeau (Ridgecrest, Calif.),
Nikita Ponomarenko (Mariupol, Ukraine), and
Benjamin Stark (Montverde, Fla.).
Nikky Avise (Owens Cross Roads, Ala.) impressed in her first individual performance, picking up a victory in the 50 yard butterfly by eight milliseconds over a competitor from Williams by posting a 26.02 effort. Ponomarenko finished a strong sixth in the men's side.
Riendeau logged a 12th-place spot in the 200 yard IM a few events later, before Avise returned to claim second behind a UVM competitor in the 50 yard freestyle. Riendeau and Ponomarenko earned back-to-back 10th- and 11th-place spots in the men's portion of the 50 yard freestyle.
Stark was just one of two competitors to take on the 1650 yard freestyle, finishing just behind Williams' Alex Atherton in the grueling race. Adlianitski would give a long event a go, as well, finishing third in the 1000 yard freestyle a few events later.
Reilly Laitala (Sterling, Mass.) and
Heather Ansley (Owens Cross Roads, Ala.) partook in the 1 meter dive, closing out Norwich's Friday festivities until Saturday's 1 meter dive in men's competition, when
Jack Brennan (Hopkinton, Mass.),
Aidan Grady (Sandwich, Mass.),
Dylan Feeney (Medway, Mass.), and
Kevin Gamble (Penn, Pa.) participated. Brennan led the field, finishing third out of 11 divers.
The Cadets will now look ahead to the three-day GNAC Championships, hosted from Friday, Feb. 3 through Sunday, Feb. 5 at the Wellesley Sports Complex in Wellesley, Mass. Norwich will look to build upon strong finishes from last year, when the men finished second while the women earned fourth-place.
