VILLANOVA, Pa. – Villanova used a 12-win meet to start the new calendar year with a 161-120 victory over Richmond at the Villanova Swim Complex on Friday afternoon.
Five Wildcats won at least two events to help Villanova (4-1) to its second straight dual win.
Kelly Montesi (Greenwich, Conn.) led the group with three victories, winning the 100 Back (55.61), 100 Fly (55.57) and swimming the first leg of the winning 200 medley relay. The only other Wildcat to win a pair of individual swims was
Nicole Welch (Beverly, Mass.), taking the 1000 Free (10:20.02) and 500 Free (5:04.08).
Villanova and Richmond (2-2) split diving to start the meet tied at 13.
Andrea Holtz (Rosemount, Minn.) won the 1-meter with a score of 239.02.
In the 200 Medley Relay, Montesi was joined by
Perri Stahl (La Grange, Ill.), Elizabeth Bailey (Brookhaven, Ga.) and
Abbey Berloco (Branbury, N.J.) with a winning time of 1:45.56. The winning ways continued through the next five events to allow Villanova to distance itself.
Welch's win in the 1000 Free was followed by a close contest in the 200 Free.
Milly Routledge (North Ascot, U.K.) touched the wall in 1:53.58 for the win, just four-hundredths of a second better than Richmond's Margaret Purcell. Berloco was not far behind in third with a 1:54.38 finish.
Villanova has three of the top-four times in the 100 back, including the winning time from Montesi.
Grace Wielar (Richmond, Va.) and
Audrey Pastorek (Savannah, Ga.) came in third and fourth, respectively, with 58.85 and 59.45 times.
Stahl and
Kaitlin Gravell (Ashton, Md.) delivered a close one-two finish in the 100 Breast. Stahl's 1:06.12 was three-tenths of a second faster than Gravell, touching the wall in 1:06.42. A similar finish came in the 200 Fly for the Wildcats with Bailey finishing first in 2:05.46 followed by
Molly Benson (Kensington, Md.) taking second at 2:08.28.
Berlocco and Routledge delivered another top-two sweep in the 100 free. Berloco won the event with a time of 52.22, just edging out Routledge's 52.43.
Weilar and Gravell added wins to the ledger for Villanova in the 200 Back (2:06.67) and 200 Breast (2:20.79), respectively.
Villanova hits the road on Monday for a trip to Piscataway, NJ to take on Rutgers. That meet is set to start at noon at the Rutgers Aquatics Center.
