WORCESTER, MA- 250 points for both squads, a top 5 finish for Women’s swimming, and some podium positions for diving highlighted the 2024 NE-10 Championships this past weekend. From February 15 to 18, Pace & Dive slept and swam at the hosting Worcester (wuss-stir) Polytechnic Institute for supremacy among schools in specific events.
Thursday, February 15, 2024
Preliminaries began on day one, starting around noon last Thursday. The women’s A relay of the 800 Yard Freestyle Relay opened up the tournament. Pace finished third in this event with a time of 7 minutes, 52 seconds, 5 seconds behind second place Bentley. In the pool first was the quartet of Jeanna Pearse, Jean Donlevy, Alexei Vinson, and Sophie Greko, who won a few medals last year.
Event 2 was the men’s turn of the same event, the 800 Yard Freestyle Relay. While Pace, finished 8th, 6 hundredths of a second kept them from seventh. Their official time was 7:27.11, while Adelphi University ahead of them finished with 7:27.05.
The first diving event of the tournament was event 3. Reigning Diver of the Year Senior Sean Rorke won the Men’s 3 Meter Dive prelim. His score of 462.75 was 129 points higher than the runner-up, signaling a strong start. Gregory Asayn who won NE-10 Diver of the week last month came third.
Friday, February 16, 2024
The Men’s 3 Meter Dive second go-round opened Friday morning’s competition. Rorke won with 440 points nearly 100 ahead of the runners-up. Asayan again finished third for two Setters in the top 5.
In Women’s 1 Meter Dive, sophomore Isabella Reyes finished second with a score of 393.30. The win secured silver, the third medal of her career already.
Two setters finished top 5 in the A Final of the Women’s 500-yard Freestyle. Sophie Greko was 4th with a time of 5:10.08. Her teammate Jeanna Pearse was behind her with an end time of 5:12:10.
In a hotly contested race, Freshman Jacki Ambrose and sophomore Jordan Barbosa finished 6th and 8th in the A final of the Women’s 50 Yard Freestyle. Ambrose with a time of 24.77 finished just .13 seconds out of 5th place and .44 out of second, that time being 24.36. Meanwhile, Barbosa ended with 25.03. In the B final, freshman Alexei Vinson finished 3rd with a time of 25.28.
Event 13 was the Women 200 Yard Freestyle. Pace finished top 5 in this heat. The swimmers in the pool for the event were Ambrose, Vinson, and Barbosa, all for the second events of their day, and Katherine Kline the captain of the women’s swim team. The men were up next for their 200-yarder. Pace got 7th with a time of 1:29.39. In the water for the Setters were Owen Butryn, Michael Brace, captain Tyler Besnoff, and freshman Michael Savchuk.
Barbosa and Greko were back in the pool for their third event. They swam the Women’s 400-yard Medley Relay with Alaire Thomas and Jenna Pearse. The four finished seventh with a time of 4:07.71. The men finished 8th in their edition with a time of 3:44.65. Competing was Brace, Robert Gehman, Issac Sanchez, and Savchuk again.
Through 2 days, Pace women’s were fourth with 197, and Pace men’s was seventh with 133 points.
Saturday, February 17, 2024
The Final Event for the Men’s 1 Meter Dive kicked off day 3. Rorke once again won easily with a final score of 463.05. Asayn just missed the podium, taking fourth place, scoring 345.55.
Greko took bronze in the 400-yard Individual Medley. She finished with a 4:37.85 for the third medal of her career. In the B-final, senior Rose Clark finished first with a time of 4:57.52.
In the B-Final of the Men’s 400-yard Individual Medley, Besnoff was third. He clocked a time of 4: 21.30 for a good start to the day for the men.
Jeanna Pearse got to wear her first silver medal later in the day. She finished second with a time of 1:54.19 in the Women’s 200 Yard Freestyle. Greko was fifth and Jean Donlevy was sixth. Neither was far behind in time at 1:55:97 and 1:59:06 clocked, respectively.
In Event 25, Niels Callewart was second in the men’s 100-yard Freestyle. The graduate student had a time of 57.19 seconds, barely beating out a College of Saint Rose swimmer, who had 57.80.
In the final of the Women’s 200-yard Medley Relay, The Setters finished fifth. In the pool were Donlevy, Pearse, and Greko, joined by Rose Clark.
Sunday, February 18, 2024
Isabella Reyes won silver for her effort in the Women 3 Meter Diving. It is the third in her career following.
Sean Rorke was named Diver of The Tournament, setting him up to repeat as NE-10 Diver of The Year.
Jackie Ambrose in the Women’s 100-yard Freestyle ended in 5th place. The freshman finished with a time of 53.59 seconds. Jean Donley in the same event was 8th, timing in at 54:41 seconds.
Niels Callewaert won bronze for Pace in the men’s 200-yard Breaststroke. His time of 2:06:82 was just enough to get on the podium, with two other swimmers finishing within 5 seconds after him.
For the Women’s 400-yard Freestyle Relay, it was silver for Pace. Greko, Donlevy, Pearse, and Ambrose finished with a time of 3:31.71. Their performance was record-setting. They are the first record-breakers since 2019.
At the end of NE-10s, Pace Women’s Swim & Dive finished fourth scoring 476 points. Assumption jumped them in their last few events to take a top 3 position, they scored 483. The men’s swim and dive ended up seventh with 279.
The 2024 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships will take place Tuesday, March 12 to Saturday, March 16. They are scheduled to occur at the SPIRE Institute Aquatics Center in Geneva, Ohio. Announcements are expected in the later stages of the month. To see which Setters among others will be headed to NCAAs, head to NCAA.com/swim and dive. You can also follow along on paceuatheltics.com