The UM swim and dive team came away with three medals and a program record at its last event of the season last week.
Both the women’s swimming and the men’s diving placed 11th overall, holding their own against the ACC competitors without their women’s diving counterparts. After the final day of competition, the Virginia women and the North Carolina State men came away as the champions.
For UM, there were some A and B final competitors in the swimming, and the divers were able to continue to show their dominance with three medals overall after Max Flory swept the three diving events in 2023.
Standout performances from diving included redshirt senior Brodie Scapens and junior Mohamed Farouk collectively receiving all the medals for UM at this championship. Scapens, with a score of 395.00 in the 1-meter springboard, collected his first ever ACC medal at the last competition of his college career.
Scapens also competed in the 3-meter springboard event, after which he described his gold medal dive as a “confidence boost” but could not follow it up in the following event. His teammate Farouk took the bronze in the 3-meter springboard as well as the silver in the men’s platform. Farouk is a standout and one to watch going forward, as he represents his country, Egypt, in the upcoming Paris Olympics later this year.
Notable performances from the swim team include strong relays with school records broken and personal triumphs breaking records as well. An exciting school best time of 3:15.45 was set by Talia Bates, Giulia Carvalho, Jane Fitzgerald and Savannah Barr in their 400-yard freestyle relay.
Alongside the 800-yard freestyle relay composed of Bates, Barr, Fitzgerald and Adrianna Cera, another school standard was set with a time of 7:04.79.
Bates also broke her own record time in the 200-yard freestyle. Carvalho made it to the A final in the 100-yard butterfly and came in seventh place. Bates and Cera both delivered strong performances in the B final of the 200-yard freestyle. It should be noted that the swimmers competed without the points of the women’s diving team contributing to their overall points.