The Howard University Swimming and Diving teams traveled to the University of Mary Washington to take on the host Eagles and the College of William and Mary Tribe on Saturday afternoon.  On the strength of two very impressive relays and a handful of commendable individual efforts, the Bison put-up a solid showing against the Eagles and the Tribe, but were overmatched on the final scoreboard.  The women lost to William and Mary 192-62 and to Mary Washington 201-55 while the men came up short to the Tribe, 197-53, and to the Eagles, 197-56.

 

The Bison saved their best performances for the final relays.  To close the meet, the women's 200 freestyle relay were dynamic, posting times that overtook the Eagles and finished third to the Tribe.  The Lady Bison relay was comprised of junior Cachanda Evans (Plainfield, NJ,) freshmen Janai Ederaine (Corona, CA,) and Ashley Douglas (Missouri City, TX) and sophomore Chelsea Andrews (Glenside, PA) blitzed their way to a time of 1:43.07.

 

The Bison men were very strong, as well.  Sprinting past the Eagles and nearly catching the Tribe, the men's time of 1:29.02 was strung together by freshman Darell Hungerford (Clinton, MD,) junior Steven Lott (Los Angeles, CA,) senior Damjan Strbac (Zagreb, Croatia) and sophomore Zadok Isaacs (Cantero Village, Trinidad and Tobago) good for second overall.

 

Individually, the women were led by Andrews and her all-around solid performances in the 100 freestyle and 100 butterfly.  The sophomore took down the field with a 53.73, good for first place against both teams.  Her 59.96 was her career-best in dual meet competition, and beat all Mary Washington swimmers.  Andrews also competed well in the 1000 freestyle, placing fourth overall with a time of 11:30.78, her regular-season best by over three seconds.

 

Isaacs, Strbac and Hungerford notched some terrific individual swims, as well.  Isaacs 200 backstroke placed him second overall, ahead of all Mary Washington swimmers, with a time of 2:01.16.  Strbac's tremendous 100 freestyle saw him place fourth overall with a 49.71.  Hungerford won his first individual race of his collegiate career, beating the Eagles and placing second overall in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:03.13.

 

"We started and ended the meet strong," said head coach Matt Salerno.  "We have a lot of work to do in the coming weeks, but we will use many of these solid swims as a springboard for our upcoming races."

 

The Bison will return to American University on Saturday, October 30th, this time to face AU in a dual meet.  Diving will begin at 10AM with the swimming competition commencing at 1PM.