Vanderbilt Swimming walked away from its last road trip of the regular season with two victories over North Texas and Little Rock on Saturday, Jan. 27. The Commodores blew North Texas out of the water by a score of 167-126 and eked out a 147.5-139.5 win over the hosts, Little Rock.
A decisive victory for the Commodores in the 200-yard medley relay set the tone for the rest of the meet. A team of Hannah Weissman, Faith Knelson, Alina Stout and Megan Ciezczak beat the next closest challenger by two and a half seconds with a time of 1 minute, 41.59 seconds.
The next event boosted morale even more, as Vanderbilt claimed the top two spots in the 1000 free. Mercedes Traba and Madelyn Porter went one-two with Traba breaking her own school record in the event with a time of 10:03.16.
The Commodores kept the momentum going over the next three events. Kate Heintz claimed third in the 200 free. Emily Carpenter and Weissman hit the wall second and third in the 100 back. Then, Liv Gooding took third in the 100 breast.
Black and gold decorated the top of the podium once more thanks to Stout, who out-touched the runner-up by three hundredths of a second in the 50 fly, finishing with a time of 24.87. Stout solidified herself as the team’s top performer of the night when she won the 100 fly with a time of 56.07. By being part of the first place 200 medley relay earlier in the meet, Stout claimed victory in all three of her events of the day.
Ciezczak led the way for the Commodores in the 50 and 100 free, finishing second in the former and third in the latter. The 50 breast provided another boost for the squad, as Knelson and Abby Francis finished first and second, both meeting the CSCAA National Invitational Championship A standard in the process with times of 29.22 and 29.24 respectively.
Yet another one-two finish in the 400 free relay wrapped the meet up for Vanderbilt, with a team of Ciezczak, Francis, Weissman and Ellie Taliaferro finishing first with a time of 3:24.63 followed closely by Carpenter, Jenna Ravarino, Olivia Solimine and Ryen Bosuro who posted a 3:27.92.
The Commodores return to Centennial Sportsplex in Nashville, Tenn. on Feb. 2 for their final meet of the season against Tulane where they will honor their seniors.
