Boxscore

FAIRFAX, Va. - Three NCAA B-Standards were met and a host of school records fell as the University of Delaware men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams completed the first full day of the Colonial Athletic Association Championship meet at George Mason’s Jim McKay Natatorium on Thursday evening.

After the first day of competition, the Delaware men rank fourth with 145.5 points. UNC Wilmington is in first-place thus far, posting a score of 242. On the women’s side, the Hens are sixth with 93.5 points. Towson, the two-time defending champions, are currently holding down the top spot with a score of 224.

Grady Carter (at right) had a great day in the pool, reaching three B-Standards during the first day of swimming at the title meet. In the 50-freestyle, he cruised to a third-place showing with a time of 20.11. That pace beat the provisional qualifying time for the NCAA meet and also shaved four-hundredths of a second off his own school record.

Later, Carter swam the anchor leg on the team’s top 200-freestyle relay squad. During the event, he teamed with Robert MacLeish, Nicholas Woomer, and Hans Gillan to place second with a time of 1:20.59. Their time not only broke the school record but it also eclipsed the NCAA B-Standard by nearly a full second.

Carter and Gillan returned to the pool for the 400-medley relay and once again had a strong showing. After joining forces with Craig Young and Ross Buckwalter, they placed second with a school-record time of 3:16.62. That clocking also was a second faster than the NCAA provisional qualifying time.

Freshman sensation Ryan Roberts was also exceptional in the 500-freestyle, placing second with a school-record time of 4:30.88. His performance took over one second off the previous mark set by Karl Saatman back in 1988.

Thomas Gallagher rounded out Delaware’s top-10 performers for the men after placing seventh during the 1-meter dive with a score of 263.25.

On the women’s side, Erinne Butler shaved nearly four-tenths of a second off the school-record in the 50-freestyle after posting a time of 23.64 in the preliminaries. Eventually, she returned to the pool to place seventh in the finals of the event.

The women’s 200-freestyle relay squad, anchored by Butler along with Donna Healy, Courtney Raw, and MaryKathryn Harris, cruised to a record-setting time in the event. The foursome finished fourth with a time of 1:34.10, which broke the previous school mark of 1:35.09 set last season.

Cortney Barry also had a nice performance in the 500-freestyle after cruising to a seventh-place finish. In the highly-competitive event, which saw four swimmers reach NCAA B-Standards, she touched the wall in 4:56.00.

In other events, the 400-medley relay team led by Raw, Healy, Hannah Facchine, and Elise Kanegawa placed sixth with a time of 3:48.54, while Emily Kasyon came in 10th during the 3-meter dive with a score of 240.75 during the event that was held on Wednesday evening.

The championship meet will continue tomorrow with preliminaries beginning at 10 a.m.

MEN’S AGATE:

Standings through the first day: 1. UNCW (242). 2. George Mason (200). 3. Old Dominion (152). 4. Delaware (145.5). 5. William & Mary (124.5). 6. Drexel (114). 7. Towson (70).

Top-10 Delaware Finishers: 2nd Place – 200-Free Relay (MacLeish, Woomer, Gillan, Carter, 1:20.59); Ryan Roberts (500-Free, 4:30.88); 400-Medley Relay (Young, Buckwalter, Gillan, Carter, 3:16.62); 3rd Place – Grady Carter (50-Freestyle, 20.11); 7th Place – Thomas Gallagher (1-Meter Dive, 263.25).