Heading into the final event of the year before the Atlantic 10 championship, the Massachusetts men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams congratulated their underclassmen on a trio of awards this week in the conference.
Following strong performances in last week’s Dartmouth Invitational, two A-10 weekly awards were given to the men’s team. Sophomore swimmer Chris Inglis was given the Men’s Performer of the Week award after recording three, first-place finishes in last week’s Upper Valley invitational.
Michael Glenn, a freshman swimmer, was given the A-10 Rookie of the Week award. He was a catalyst in UMass’ second-place finish this week when he added two first-place finishes of his own.
On the women’s side, young star Zoe Judd helped to complete the squad’s sweep of the Rookie of the Week awards. Judd was honored after a standout performance at Dartmouth where she swam her way a first, second and third-place finish. This is the second consecutive week that Judd has been given this award.
UMass will host the last event of the season at Joseph Rogers Pool this weekend against A-10 rival Fordham where each team will say farewell to their senior classes.
Coming off second-place finishes last week in Dartmouth, both teams head into this week trying to prepare for the A-10 meets that will follow upon the completion of the regular season schedule.
The Minutemen have four seniors that will be swimming for the last time in their collegiate careers this weekend. Divers Jason Cook and Conor Dunn, along with swimmers Kyle Jennings and Joey Sbordon, have all spent four years with the Minutemen and will graduate this spring.
Cook made his mark at UMass when he was the first diver to compete in the NCAA championships. Dunn, the other senior diver, had a solid career at UMass competing in the one and three-meter dives throughout his four years.
Jennings, an Ohio native, goes down in the school’s history books with the fourth best time in the 200 backstroke event clocking in at 1:49.08.
Joey Sbordon claims many spots in the record books himself. He is third all-time in both the 1650 free (15:49.02) and the 500 free (4:31.63) events. He also holds the top time in UMass history as a member of 800 free relay with a total time of 6:35.92.
The Minutewomen will say goodbye to a class of six seniors this weekend. The class includes Liz Sullivan, Dorothy Polatin, Molly Papish, Sarah Kanellas, Chelsea Downing and Sarah Arnott.
Sullivan spent her four years at UMass competing in the breast and IM events. Polatin, Arnott, Kanellas and Papish each were key swimmers in the free events.
Papish ranks fourth all-time in UMass history in the 1650 free event with a time of 17:26.36. Kanellas is third all-time in the 100 fly with a time of 56.70.
Downing goes down as one of the Minutewomen’s best swimmers ever with a total of three records. She holds all-time records in the 400 IM, the 1650 free and the 500 free.
Chris Corso can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @MDC_Corso.
