The men’s and women’s swimming teams lost to Division II Bloomsburg in a home meet on Saturday, Nov. 16. The Bloomsburg men defeated Dickinson 132-67 and the women won 121-72. The Bloomsburg women are ranked #20 in all of Division II. This early-season, non-conference meet gave the Red Devils an opportunity to face quality competition prior to facing Centennial Conference rivals. The loss moves the men’s team to 4-2 and the women’s team to 5-2.

Dickinson received a pair of wins from first-years on the men’s side, which should bode well as the season progresses. Alex Bennett ’17 touched first in the 200 freestyle, swimming to a time of 1:47.84, and Sam Eaton ’17 won the 100 breaststroke in 1:02.05. Bennett also swam the lead leg of the 200 freestyle relay, which won in 1:32.59. Chris Miles ‘15, Travis Lipscomb ’17, and Sasha Jouravlev ’17 swam the second, third, and fourth legs of the 200 freestyle relay, respectively.

Miles also came in second in the 100 backstroke with a time of 55.05 seconds. Brandon Gauthier ’14 added another second place for Dickinson, touching in 1:03.17 in the 100 breaststroke, finishing just behind Eaton.

For the women, Caitlin Klockner ’16 and Carson Gannon ’14 led the way, but, a variety of Red Devils contributed. Klockner, the defending McAndrews Award winner, swam second in the winning 200 freestyle relay (1:43.01) and placed second in the 100 and 200 individual freestyle events with times of 54.96 and 2:01.81, respectively. Emily Houser ’17 swam before Klockner on the winning freestyle relay team, with Gannon and Alex Melchiorre ’15 swimming after.

Kayla Haskins ’14 won the 100 breastroke, finishing in 1:16.00. Gannon came in second in the 500 freestyle, clocking in at 5:22.43. Houser placed second in the 100 backstroke at 1:01.89. Caroline Brennan ’15 came in second in the 1650 freestyle, narrowly edging Gannon by less than two seconds. Lindsey Morton ’17 and Clara Russell ’16 also added second places for the Red Devils, Morton in the 100 butterfly and Russell in the 100 breaststroke.

Both teams will compete in the two-day Gettsyburg Invitational on Friday, Nov. 22 and Saturday, Nov. 23. Last season, both Dickinson teams came in last place at this meet, finishing behind Johns Hopkins, Gettysburg, and the University of Mary Washington, respectively.