The West Chester Golden Rams men’s swimming and diving team snagged second place at the three-day Terrapin Cup invitational hosted by the University of Maryland.The Rams finished behind the University of Connecticut Huskies who won the invite and led in points after each day. West Chester finished second each day, but was outpaced by 64 points after day one and 166 points by the conclusion of day two. West finished with 800 points overall.
WCU beat out Drexel, Maryland, Villanova and William & Mary. Each school other than WCU is a Division I program.
In Saturday’s events, West Chester placed six individuals and one relay for the NCAA Championships on the final day of competition.
West Chester won the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:02.82 to easily beat the NCAA qualifying time.
Max Bernades and Chris Salomone finished second and third in the 1650-yard free-style and qualified as well.
Bill Marcum finished a 45.48 second 100-yard freestyle to qualify for nationals and take second place in the event.
David Smoker qualified for nationals with a 1:52.98 200-yard butterfly performance. Smoker placed sixth with his time.
Devin Canfield qualified in the 200 backstroke just beating the cutoff time.
Over the three-day tournament, West Chester’s Men’s Swimming team qualified five relay teams and 12 individuals to compete in the NCAA national championship to be held at the onset of the season.
WCU’s Women’s Swimming Team did not have as much success within the Terrapin Cup Invitational, but still qualified five relays and three individuals for the nationals.
The team finished sixth overall within the invite.
Jackie Borkowski qualified for the 50 freestyle and the 200 backstroke over the weekend.
West Chester will compete in five more meets this season including a trip to Penn State at the end of January and the last home meets at West Chester on Groundhog Day.
Frank Stern is a fourth-year student majoring in literature with a minor in journalism. He can be reached at FS628548@wcupa.edu