Collegiate Times

The Virginia Tech swim and dive teams concluded the regular season strong over the weekend at the inagural Virginia Tech Invitational. 

The invitational included five schools — James Madison, Virginia Military Institute, Washington and Lee, UNC Wilmington and Georgia Tech. 

The H2Okies brought home 14 titles overall. Ten of the titles were won on Friday, the first day of the Invitational, and Tech won every event in which it had a representative in the finals of an event.

On the women’s side, freshman Rachel Speanski earned three titles on the weekend. She won the 100-, 200- and 500-yard freestyle events. Michael Hallock won the 100 freestyle for the men’s team with a time of 45.41. In that same race, the H2Okies placed second, fourth and fifth. 

Additionally, Ben Munster won the men’s 500 freestyle with a time of 4:38.77. The teams wrapped up their dominance in the freestyle events with each side winning the 50 freestyle. Morgan Allen won the event for the women, with teammate Sarah Ault finishing third in the race, and Adam Skipper won on the men’s side with Hallock finishing second.   

On Saturday, Tech swept the 100 backstroke event as Caroline Higgins won for the women and Hallock won for the men. 

Higgins also came back on Sunday and won the 200 backstroke. 

Tech’s dominance in the meet continued in the 100 breaststroke. Natalie Leake won first place for the women and the men’s team swept the event. 

Nathan Hosington won the race with a time of 51.14 followed by Skipper, Danny Loftus and Nick Tremols, respectively.

With this year’s opening of the Christiansburg Aquatic Center, Tech is hoping the meet becomes an annual event. 

The women’s season will continue on Feb. 16 at the ACC Championship meet in Atlanta, Ga., and the men’s diving events will also take place that weekend. The men’s swimming competition will take place the following week on Feb. 23 in Atlanta.

A version of this article appeared in the Feb 8 issue of the Collegiate Times.