Swimming and Diving Drop Pair of Dual Meets at Northeastern

Sophomore Alex Czaplicki won the 100 and 200 backstroke, as well as the 200 IM, but the Central Connecticut State University swimming and diving team dropped a pair of dual meets to open the season on Saturday. The Blue Devils fell to Northeastern by a score of 175-108 and lost the meet with Maine, 161-132 in Boston this afternoon. Czaplicki won the 100 back in 1:00.70, and took the 200 back in 2:09.80. The sophomore won her final event, the 200 IM, by over ten seconds, touching in at 2:10.31.

Freshman Taylor Friedmann put forth a fantastic outing in her first collegiate competition. The Berlin, CT native won the 500 freestyle, while taking second place in the 200 free and fourth in the 100 free. Friedmann touched in at 5:13.87 to win the 500, after recording times of 1:56.58 and 55.74 in the 200 and 100, respectively.

Another CCSU rookie that took advantage of her first collegiate swimming was Lauren O'Kelly. She placed second in the 1,000 freestyle, finishing in 11:03.86, and took fourth in the 200 IM (2:20.63. The Brewster, NY native was also a member of the Blue Devil 400 freestyle relay team that took second. O'Kelly was joined by freshman Katie Lang, senior Kandra Kane and freshman Lauren Shortell to record a time of 3:47.51.

Lang also did some work as an individual in the pool on Saturday, finishing the 100 butterfly in 1:00.87 to place second. She also took part in the other CCSU relay team to finish second this afternoon. She was joined by Czaplicki, sophomore Kristen Malski and Friedmann to touch in at 1:53.03 for silver medalist honors in the 200 medley relay.

Sophomore Madison Vestergaard led the diving unit with a second place finish in the three meter event and placed fifth in the one meter dive. Verstergaard recorded point totals of 161.65 and 150.90 in the two events, respectively.

Central will next be in competition at the Sonny Werblin Invitataional in Piscataway, NJ on October 23 and 24.