Women's Swimming Competes at Gompei Invitational
Links: Results
WORCESTER, Mass. – The Merrimack women's swimming team continued its winter season on Sunday, taking part in the WPI Gompei Invitational. The Warriors competed against 11 other programs, including two other Northeast-10 foes. Assumption College won the invitational while Bentley finished in fourth place; the Warriors finished in the No. 12 spot.
The Basics
Top Performers: Jennifer Belanger (13th – 1650 freestyle)
Team Scores: 1. Assumption 3114, 2. WPI 2731, 3. Roger Williams 2202, 4. Bentley 1287, 5. Mount Holyoke 1238 … 12. Merrimack 85
Location: Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Worcester, Mass.
How It Happened
Merrimack sophomore Jennifer Belanger (South Windsor, Conn.) was the top finisher for the Navy and Gold on Sunday, taking the No. 13 spot in the women's 1650-yard relay. Belanger nearly cracked the top-10 in a field that featured 42 competitors. Belanger posted a finishing time of 19:21.68, which was only 16 seconds from cracking the top-10 in that event.
Belanger also also had a strong showing in the 400-yard IM event, finishing in 27th place. She also finished 33rd in the 200-yard freestyle event, which featured 78 total swimmers. Freshmen Carly Anne Forrester (Sandwich, Mass.), Irleand Wilson (Niantic, Conn.), and Kendra Van Pelt (Burlington, Iowa), Julia Collins (North Reading, Mass.), Alana Appel (Salt Lake City, Utah) and Genesis Garcia (Lawrence, Mass.) also swam in the 200-yard freestyle event, as did senior Erin Lydon (Waltham, Mass.).
The extremely young Warriors – eight of the 11 swimmers are freshmen – gained some valuable experience in other events.
Collins, Van Pelt and Appel had a strong showing in the 50-yard backstroke event; the trio finished within six seconds of each other.
Up Next
The Warriors will be off until Jan. 11, when they take part in tri-meet against Southern Connecticut State and Connecticut College. The meet will be Merrimack's final warmup before taking part in the Northeast-10 Championships beginning on Feb. 6 in New Haven.
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