Mountain Hawks head to Colgate for first league meet
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Men's Swimming & Diving
Posted: 10/26/2012
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Lehigh swimming and diving teams will compete in their second meet of the season when they travel to Hamilton, N.Y. Saturday to take on the Colgate Raiders. Both teams will look to bounce back from hard-fought losses in their season opening meets when they begin Patriot League competition against the Raiders. Yale will also compete in the event, but its swimmers will not count towards scoring.
The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams lost their opening meets by a combined seven points to West Chester last Friday at Lehigh’s Jacobs Pool. The men fell by four points (118.5-122.5) while the women lost by just three (119-122).
The men’s team won seven of the 13 events against West Chester but a 31-5 edge on the diving boards propelled the Golden Rams to the victory. A pair of freshmen had impressive debuts for the Mountain Hawks, with Jacob Hassel winning two events and classmate Jeff Donovin grabbing a first and a second.
Donovin gave Lehigh its first event win of the season when he took first in the 200 free in 1:44.77. After junior teammate Demetri Karedis won the next event, the 200 free, in 21.46 seconds, Hassel made it three wins in a row for Lehigh when he win the 200 IM in 1:59.74. Hassel and Donovin later teamed up to give Lehigh 13 points in the 200 fly as Hassel won in 1:56.02 and Donovin took second. Despite a strong effort by the swimmers, the 26 point deficit in diving proved too much to overcome and the men dropped their opening meet of the year.
Freshmen swimmers impressed for Lehigh in the women’s meet also, but like the men, the Mountain Hawks diving team dropped points that the swimmers could not make up. Lehigh took eight of the 13 events, but suffered a 28 point defeat on the diving boards.
Freshmen Cady Zawatson and Courtney Patterson were both double-winners to lead Lehigh’s effort. Zawatson paced the Mountain Hawks in the distance events, winning the 1000 free in 10:25.03 and the 500 in 5:08.64. Patterson took first in the 200 free in 1:54.35 
and later won the 200 fly in 2:09.20. Fellow newcomer Karolyn Koch also won valuable points for Lehigh when she took first in the 100 free in 53.17 seconds before finishing second in the 50 free.
The women’s meet came down to the final event, the 400 yard free relay. West Chester was able to edge the Mountain Hawks by taking first and third place, outscoring Lehigh 13-4. The Golden Rams moved to 3-0 on the women’s side with the victory.
Colgate has yet to swim an event on both the men’s and women’s side this season but both squads look strong. The Colgate men were recently picked to finish sixth in the Patriot League, while the women were chosen to finish second.
The meet is set to begin at 1 p.m. Saturday at Colgate’s Lineberry Natatorium.
Story by Cam Omsberg ‘13