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Posted: Nov 16, 2014

FIT Swimming Opens Season at Sarah Lawrence Invite

(Yonkers, NY) The FIT Tigers opened their competition season Saturday afternoon at the Sarah Lawrence Sprint Invitational. The meet was run with some non-traditional events, including 50s and 100s of stroke, the 100 and 200 IMs, and the 50, 100, and 200 freestyles. Highlighting the meet was the final race of the day, the men's 200 free relay, in which Ian Lowe, David Burkel, Jeff Sutera, and Michael Yavid broke the school record by four seconds.

Second-year swimmer Emily Mance wasted no time returning to last year's form, picking up second place finishes in the 200 free (2:12.14) and 200 IM (2:34.60). The latter moves her up to fifth all-time in that event at FIT. Mance ended the meet with another second place finish, leading off the 200 free relay of Katie vanBeek, Anna Pacult, and Lindsay Richardson that finished in 1:56.08.

Fellow returner vanBeek tackled a tough back-to-back-to-back, opening the meet by anchoring the team's 200 medley relay, then returning immediately for a fifth place finish in the 200 IM (2:51.75) and again for a sixth place finish in the 100 free (1:08.07). Exchange student Gemma Rudd joined vanBeek in the 100 free, finishing fifth in 1:06.71 and later claiming fourth in the 100 fly (1:19.54).

Additional highlights for the women included Richardson and Pacult going 2-3 in the 50 free (29.36 and 29.65, respectively), Julia Manning taking fifth in the 100 fly (1:22.09), Lauren Gorgano sealing sixth and eighth place respectively in the 200 free (2:30.12) and 100 breast (1:30.46), and Pacult taking sixth in the 100 breast in 1:28.62.

The men kicked off the meet with silver in the 200 medley relay. The team of Sutera, Burkel, Nick Paganelli, and Lowe swam to a time of 1:57.91. Paganelli and Yavid turned around to take 2-3 in the 200 IM in 2:24.68 and 2:28.30, respectively. Paganelli took home one of two individual wins for the Tigers, swimming a 2:05.78 in the 200 free, good enough for sixth all-time in that event at FIT. Sutera claimed the other win in 1:04.47 in the 100 back, placing him third all-time at FIT.

In other events, Sutera claimed second in the 100 free (53.60) followed by Lowe in fifth (1:02.48), Burkel and Juan Novoa took second and fifth respectively in the 50 free (25.35 and 35.22), and Burkel followed Yavid in the 100 breast with Yavid recording the fourth fastest time all-time at FIT (1:10.10), just ahead of Burkel in 1:12.95.

The Tigers return to competition in three weeks on Friday and Saturday, November 21-22, at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania.