WASHINGTON – The Georgetown University swimming & diving team will return to action this weekend when it hosts BIG EAST rival Villanova in a dual meet at Albert G. McCarthy Pool on Saturday afternoon. The meet will begin at 1 p.m. on the Hilltop and will be GU's final home meet of the fall semester.
The Hoyas and Wildcats will meet for the first time in a regular season dual meet since the GU men traveled to Villanova in December 2009. The two programs were each part of a five-team meet at Rutgers last fall that also included Pittsburgh and Seton Hall. The GU men defeated the Wildcats 210.50-142.50 while the Hoya women fell 246-107.
Georgetown and Villanova have battled it out at the BIG EAST Championships each of the past five seasons. The Wildcat women have won five-straight BIG EAST titles, while the Hoyas have placed second in all five years. On the men's side, the Blue & Gray finished second for four-consecutive years before Villanova finished ahead of the Hoyas last season.
The Hoyas are coming off a tri-meet loss to Towson and James Madison in Baltimore on Oct. 13. In dual meet scoring, the GU men fell to Towson 172-126 while the women's squad fell to the Tigers 199-100 and to James Madison 211-89. Sophomore
Drew Carbone (Chelmsford, Mass. / Central Catholic) continued his hot start to the season, sweeping both backstroke events. He won the 100-yard race in 50.85 seconds and took the top spot in the 200 backstroke in 1:51.51. Freshman
Michael Wheeler (Lafayette, Calif. / Campolindo) won the 1,000-yard freestyle, and then came in second behind classmate
Brett Sherman (Carmel, Ind. / Carmel) in the 500 freestyle. Freshman
Carlson Temple (San Diego, Calif. / Patrick Henry) and
Ryan Blom (Hershey, Pa. / Milton Hershey) each also picked up wins in the 200-yard breaststroke and the 3-meter dive, respectively.
On the women's side, junior
Cristina Barrett (Chatham, N.J. / Chatham) picked up the GU women's only individual win, touching the wall first in the 1,000-yard freestyle.
Carbone and Barrett swept the BIG EAST Swimming & Diving Athlete of the Week honors after the meet, giving the Hoyas three weekly awards on the season as sophomore
Phoebe Slaughter (Darien, Conn. / Darien) earned BIG EAST Female Athlete of the Week honors earlier this year.
Following Saturday's meet, Georgetown will be back in the pool the weekend of Nov. 16-18 for the Bucknell Invite in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Preliminary heats will get underway at 10 a.m. each day, while the finals will start at 6 p.m.
