The UNH swimming and diving team was victorious over its three-day stay at the Boston University Invitational tournament prior to Thanksgiving break. Junior Liza Baykova broke a Boston University pool record in the 100-yard freestyle in the final day of competition to help lead the Wildcats to a seventh-place finish.
Baykova was remarkable in every event she participated in, but in the 100-yard freestyle, the record was hers for the taking. Out in front of the pack, Baykova clocked a time of 49.68-seconds which shattered the previous record of 49.91 set in 2008. This feat notched her third top finish during the invitational and added another to her terrific 2016-17 campaign so far.
Besides Baykova, the Wildcats as a team swam hard to obtain 211.5 points, behind the likes of Army West Point who finished first with 1,000.5 points and Boston University in second with 920.5 points.
For UNH, Baykova, Sarah Broderick, Brittany Moffatt and Corinne Carbone paved the way for an eighth-place finish at the 400-meter relay at a time of 3:32.26. The Wildcats continued do well in 200-meter races as well with Sarah Olver finishing 11th in the backstroke and Vivienne El-Sibay finishing 11th in the butterfly with a time of 2:07.77.
Moffatt and Carbone matched their strong relay times individually as well where in the 1650-freestyle, Moffatt gained steam to take 11th place and in the 200-backstroke, Carbone finished 16th with a time of 2:09.54.
In the 400-freestyle relay, Kaitlin Cahill, Emily Giambastini, Madeline Murphy, and Annmarie Picinich dug deep to claim 16th place with a time of 3:38.69.
The Wildcats faced strong opponents during the three-day event with the likes of the University of Vermont, University of Massachusetts, Boston College, Fairfield University, and University of Bridgeport, The Wildcats were able to swim past Fairfield who finished below them with 9 points.
With Baykova finding the podium and other notables paving their way, the Wildcats look to be in great position during the final stretch of the season. At 2-3, 0-1 in conference, Head Coach Josh Wellham and the ‘Cats face a strong Binghamton team to bring in the new year and then travel to Niagara Falls, New York for a quick duel meet before ending the season in Orono, Maine to clash with the Black Bears. The America East championships take place Feb. 6 in Worcester, Massachusetts.
The Wildcats next meet will take place Jan. 21 at 10 a.m. in Vestal, N.Y. when they face Binghamton.