Relays Compete on Day One of Landmark Swim Championships
BOYDS, Md. - The Goucher College men's and women's swim teams opened competition in the 2023 Landmark Conference Swimming Championships on Friday at the Germantown Aquatic Center. Through six events, both Gopher teams find themselves in sixth place with 52 points.
The women's 200 freestyle relay finished sixth with a time of 1:44.55, bettering the Gophers' best time of the year by over six seconds. The relay was made up of Ella Robinson (Canajoharie, N.Y./Canajoharie), Darcy McFarland (East Hampton, N.Y./East Hampton), Olivia Reichardt (Monument, Colo./Palmer) and Kelci Wood (Spencer, Ind./Owen Valley).
The Gophers also placed sixth in the 400 medley relay with a mark of 4:18.21, the team's fastest time in the event since the 2018 conference championship. That relay consisted of McFarland, Robinson, Alejandra Barry-Ruiz (New Haven, Conn./Amity) and Wood.
The men's 200 free relay made up of Liam McDonald (Cary, N.C./Saint Francis), Shankaran Kurup (Oakland, Calif./Bentley School), Noah Moudarres (Istanbul, Turkey) and Christian Houck (Bel Air, Md./Harford Tech) placed sixth overall. The 400 medley relay made up of Ben Graff (Baltimore, Md./Friends School), Houck, Richie Bialik (New City, N.Y./Clarkstown) and McDonald also came home sixth.
In Friday morning's prelims, Robinson missed qualifying for the B final in the 200 individual medley by 0.02 seconds, swimming a 2:20.28. It marked the fastest swim by a Gopher woman in the 200 IM since Ila Jackson swam a 2:19.27 at the 2017 conference championship.
Day two of the Landmark Conference Championships kicks off Saturday with preliminaries at 10 am and the finals at 5:30 pm.