Many of the Wildcat competitors finished in the top 10 of their events last weekend when the swimming and diving team competed in an invitational at Princeton University. This resulted in the women placing fifth overall and men placing seventh overall.

For the lady ‘Cats, Jenny Sommerville took first place in the 1,650-yard freestyle. Her time was 16:38.51. Teammates Lauren Schulman and Carolyn Gusick also competed in this event. Schulman placed fourth and Gusick placed ninth.

Freshmen Caitlin Regan finished in the top ten spots three times. She placed third in the 400 individual medley, fifth in the 200-yard breaststroke and seventh in the 200-individual medley.

Sophomore Kristina Lennox finished third in the 200-yard freestyle and fourth in the 200-yard butterfly. Her time for the butterfly was 2:04.86, her personal best.

“Even though we are only halfway through the season, it was pretty exciting to watch the majority of the team drop time and make their cuts for either Big East or ECAC,” Lennox said.

The men were also successful. Bryan Rivera finished fourth in the 1,650 free and seventh in the 200-yard freestyle.

Dave Drysdale also had two top-ten finishes. He placed seventh in the 100-yard breaststroke and 10th in the 200-yard breaststroke.

The men’s relay teams placed in the top ten as well, which definitely helped their overall score. Ryan McKenna, Dave Drysale, Mike McLaughlin and Matt McLaughlin made up the 200-medley relay team. They placed eighth in the meet. The 200-freestyle relay placed sixth overall. Mike Kernicky, Mike Phinney, Jim Harrell and Mike McLaughlin were the swimmers in this event.

Unfortunately, the diving team did not see as much action. However, the Wildcat divers said the invitational was a worthwhile experience because they learned from the experience.

“It was tough because we were a lot of freshmen competing against scholarship athletes,” freshman Mairpat Finnegan said. “We learned what need to work on for next time.”

Other competitors were Rutgers, Brown, Rider, Drexel, The College of New Jersey, American, Lehigh, Univ. of Massachusetts and Columbia.

The swimming and diving team will travel to College Park, Md. for their next competition on Jan. 14. They will compete in a tri-meet against Maryland, Carolina Stateand Big East rival Pittsburgh.