BUFFALO, N.Y. – Rachel Wuko (Wildwood Crest, N.J./Wildwood Crest) and Matea Samardzic (Split, Croati/Ekonomsko-Birotehnicka Skola) each won an individual event and teamed up to win the 400-medley relay to help the Saint Peter's women's swimming and diving team to a second-place ranking after the first day of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Swimming and Diving Championships on Thursday. Jonathan Gomez (Cali, Colombia/Patrick Henry [Va.]) recorded the lone victory for the men's swimming and diving team in the 200 IM to pace the Peacocks to a fifth-place standing after the first day.
Wuko won the 50 free in MAAC record fashion after finishing the splash and dash event in 23.09 seconds. The junior finished .48 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher and .07 seconds away from registering an NCAA "B" cut time in the event. Wuko broke the conference record during the morning preliminary in the event with a time of 23.35 and then bettered that time in the finals.
Samardzic won the 200 IM with a time of 2:05.10, besting teammate Marie Feneron (Molsheim, France/Lycee Henri Meck), who finished second in the event with a time of 2:06.16. The Peacocks racked up 48 points in the event after Alexandra Sison (Jersey City, N.J./Saint Dominic Academy) also advanced to the "A" final and finished eighth with a time of 2:10.57.
Samardzic, Sison, Cristina DeCisneros (Tampa, Fla./Sickles) and Wuko ended the first day of competition by setting winning the 400-medley relay with a new conference record time of 3:46.90.
Gomez helped Saint Peter's repeat as the 200 IM champion on the men's side after winning the competition with a time of 1:49.86, nearly two seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. Last year, Lovro Bilonic won the event for the Jersey City squad.
Sison, Michelle Corpuz (Toms River, N.J./Monsignor Donovan), Brigitte Rasmussen (Virgin Islands/Country Day School) and Feneron opened up the three-day event with a fifth-place standing in the 200-free relay (1:38.27) for the women's swimming team.
Alma Lopez (Lawrenceville, Ga./Brookwood) finished seventh in the 500 free (5:09.09) and Anastasiia Mushtei (Dneiptopnovsh, Ukraine/Finans Deukomi) finished 13th in the event (5:12.46) while Corpuz was 15th in the 50 free (24.99).
Marist leads the three-day competition with a score of 196, 43.5 points ahead of the Peacocks (145.5) while Canisius (144.5), Rider (135), Iona (99), Siena (98), Fairfield (59), Niagara (53) and Manhattan (36) round out the nine-team women's field.
Also on the men's side, Sean Dunne (Holmdel, N.J./Christian Brothers Academy) also stood on the podium with Gomez after finishing third in the 200 IM with a time of 1:51.96.
The quartet of Gomez, Dunne, Manuel Garcia (Mexico City, Mexico/The American Foundation School) and Alexandro Rubin (Caracas, Venezuela/San Ignacio) finished second in the 400-medley relay (3:22.94) and Dunne, Garcia, Alex McElvaney (Lacey Township, N.J./Lacey Township) and Rubin teamed up to place seventh in the 200-free relay (1:26.01).
Nicholas Riepe (Middlesex, N.J./Saint Joseph) finished fifth in the 500 free with a time of 4:34.02 while Garcia was 14th in the 50 free (21.60) and Aaron Manfredo placed 15th in the 1-meter dive (185.05).
Marist leads the men's competition with a score of 185, 14 points ahead of Rider (171) while Canisius (116), Saint Peter's (109), Bryant (104), Niagara (95), Iona (84), Manhattan (59) and Fairfield (50) round out the nine-team field after the first day.
Saint Peter's returns to action at the second day of the MAAC Swimming and Diving Championships on Friday. The events will be the 200-medley relay, 1000 free, 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back, men's 3-meter dive and the 800-free relay. Preliminaries start at 9 a.m. and finals begin at 6 p.m.
